Adam L. Maloney

Adam L. Maloney is a London-born writer based in Spain. He writes about travel, culture, and lived experience, and is currently working on a travelogue about interrailing across Europe. He also writes fiction and short stories, with a novel in progress.

Who was the first writer you ever obsessed over?

The first may have been Hemingway. There are only a few writers out there who have made me want to read everything they ever wrote, and he was definitely one of them, probably the first. I think it’s because his stories are clear and accessible, often set in countries outside of the Anglosphere, and tend to be intertwined with the politics and culture of those places.

What book have you reread more than any other?

I’m not a big rereader at all. I prefer moving on to something I haven’t read yet. That said, there are some books I have reread, one of them is A Moveable Feast. I liked it in my early twenties, but appreciated it way more over a decade later when it actually felt relatable. I also reread Ché Guevara’s Motorcycle Diaries, and it had the opposite effect; it was more inspiring when I was younger and hungrier to travel. As you change, so does the effect each book has on you.

What’s the strangest book you’ve ever loved?

I just finished The Sorrow of Belgium, by Hugo Claus. Not only is this book psychologically and emotionally unsettling, but I’ll be surprised if I ever meet a non-Belgian who has read it. It’s a loosely autobiographical coming-of-age story about a teenage lad trying to figure out his place in the world while his town is under Nazi occupation. But actually, it’s about far more than just that; it’s about power, hypocrisy, and apathy. 

Who is your favourite contemporary writer?

That’s a tough one because the vast majority of all books I read are by writers who died a long time ago; their books have withstood the test of time. If we’re including Kurt Vonnegut as contemporary, then maybe him. Also, Charles Bukowski. There are plenty of contemporary books I enjoy, but all my favourite authors are dead, at least the ones I can think of. 

What’s your favourite film adaptation of a book?

I think The Handmaid's Tale series on Netflix did an excellent job of bringing Margaret Atwood’s novel to the screen. It is well worth the watch, and didn’t ‘ruin the book’ as the clichéd phrase goes. 

What’s your favourite non-fiction book?

Man’s Search for Meaning by Viktor E Frankl is one of the most impactful books I’ve ever read, and I still think about it to this day, years after reading it. It’s the autobiographical account of his time spent in Auschwitz, and how he believes that having a goal and never giving up on it gave him the impetus to survive. In Europe by Geert Mak also deserves a mention. It tells the story of an entire continent over the last century or so, not simply through a set of names and dates, but rather through lives and experiences.

Tell us about a book you’ve read that didn’t live up to the hype.

I recently read a short story by Edgar Allan Poe. He’s one of those writers you feel morally obliged to have an opinion on. Anyway, I finished it and realised it would take an actual military operation to get me to read another one. I felt the same with Alexander Solzhenitsyn. His book Lenin in Zurich made me feel like I was watching grass grow in slow motion, in a sealed room. 

Do you have a favourite poem?

I remember being very impressed by Allen Ginsberg’s Howl when I first read it. I’d never come across a poem like that before in terms of both the style and the subject. I used to think that to write a poem, you need to follow a set of rules and focus on some kind of romantic topic, but Howl made me realise you can break all the rules and write about whatever the hell is meaningful to you. 

What are you reading right now, and what are you going to read next?

I’m reading Hunger by Knut Hamsum, and up next it’s a toss-up between Karl Ove Knausgaard’s My Struggle and Regeneration by Pat Barker, but I also want to read The Radetzky March by Joseph Roth. Those are all very different kinds of books, but all on my reading list for different reasons. I can never make up my mind until the day. Then once I’ve read the first page, I’m committed.