The cover of Granta’s latest issue is, without putting too fine a point on it, abominable. See for yourself. It’s a mess of blood orange, purples, pinks, reds and puce. There is no coherence. A picture of what looks like a bullfight competes for prominence with some fleshy swimmers and the front and rear ends of a lumpen American car. This lurid collage is supposed to illustrate the issue’s title: ‘Exit Strategies’. No, me neither.
Granta’s surreal covers have had the literati scratching their heads in bemusement. The convoluted sketch that adorned the previous issue seemed to have been pulled out of the On the Origin of the Species, while the cover marking the tenth anniversary of 9/11 looked like the Test Card in wonky high definition.
But, if you can survive the covers, Granta is full of delights. The last issue had contributions from Paul Auster, Stephen King, Will Self and Don de Lillo — a line-up that can’t have been matched since Wilkie Collins and Charles Dickens dominated the pages of All
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