Mutants

Toby Litt is best known for his ‘hip-lit’ fiction, which, in its sharing of characters and themes across numerous stories and novels, has always taken an unusual, hybrid form. In Mutants, he applies his restless creativity to nonfiction. The book brings together twenty-six essays on a range of diverse topics, including writers and writing, and the technological world that informs and underpins it. Each essay is marked by Litt’s distinct voice, heedless of formal conventions and driven by a curiosity and a determination to give even the shortest piece enough conceptual heft to make it come alive. Taken as a whole, these pieces unexpectedly cohere into a manifesto of sorts, for a weirder, wilder, more willful fiction.

‘Addressed primarily to aspiring writers, Litt’s essays collected in Mutants both derogate conventional prose and point the way to alternatives. He offers the sort of advice you won’t get from editors and literary agents at writing conferences, neither groups of which can meet their interlocking quarterly profit goals if you are too independent of spirit and technique.’ —On the Seawall

‘A genuinely individual talent with a positive relish for dealing with the contemporary aspects of the modern world.’ —The Scotsman

‘Toby Litt is awfully good—he gives something new every time he writes.’ —Muriel Spark

‘He has invented a fresh, contemporary style—it will sing in the ears of this generation.’ —Malcolm Bradbury