“People love Jane Austen, even though those books are absurd to us, because we like the clarity of it: we can see very clearly what Elizabeth Bennett has to overcome, what she has to deal with.”

British novelist and essayist, 1957–present. He blends sharp social observation with humor in works like *Fever Pitch*, a memoir about football fandom, and *High Fidelity*, a novel exploring music, relationships, and regret. His writing often captures the mundane and the emotional with wit and honesty.