Tom Rachman
Tom Rachman (born September 1974)[1] is an English-Canadian author. His debut novel was The Imperfectionists (2010), about a group of journalists working in Rome during the collapse of the traditional news media. The book became a global bestseller, published in 25 languages,[2] and Brad Pitt's production company, Plan B, optioned the film rights.[3]
Rachman was born in London, England, and grew up in Vancouver, Canada. He studied cinema at the University of Toronto and obtained a master's degree from Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. Later, he studied behavioral science at the London School of Economics.
Rachman's first job in journalism was as an editor of international news at Associated Press headquarters in New York. Later, he was sent to the Rome bureau as a foreign correspondent. He moved to Paris to write fiction, and worked there at the global edition of The New York Times, the International Herald Tribune.[4] After publishing The Imperfectionists in 2010, he quit full-time journalism to write further novels while contributing non-fiction articles to The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, The New Yorker and The Atlantic, among other publications.[5]
His novel The Italian Teacher, about the troubled son of a famous American painter, was nominated for the Costa Award for best novel.[6] His collection of short stories, Basket of Deplorables, set during the Trump presidency, was nominated for the Edge Hill Short Story Prize.[7] Rachman ghost-wrote the nonfiction book, We Are Bellingcat, with Eliot Higgins, founder of the online-investigative collective known for exposing Russian-state criminality, such as the Skripal poisoning.[8]
Rachman currently lives in London, and is a contributing columnist to the Canadian newspaper The Globe & Mail. His writing has twice been included in the Best Canadian Essays anthologies,[9][10] and was nominated for a 2024 National Newspaper Award.[11]
His father was the psychologist Stanley Rachman, his brother is the Financial Times columnist Gideon Rachman and his sister Carla is an art historian; their sister Emily died of breast cancer in 2012.[12]
Works
Fiction
- The Imperfectionists (2010), longlisted for the Giller Prize[13] and winner of the Canadian Authors Award for fiction[14]
- The Rise & Fall of Great Powers (2014)
- Basket of Deplorables (2017), shortlisted for the Edge Hill Prize for best collection of stories[15]
- The Italian Teacher (2018), shortlisted for the Costa Award for best novel[16]
- The Imposters (2023) [17]
Non-fiction
- We Are Bellingcat (2021) by Eliot Higgins (written with Tom Rachman)[8]
Notes
- ^ "The Imperfectionists - a novel by Tom Rachman - About Tom". Archived from the original on 27 May 2013. Retrieved 1 July 2013.
- ^ Bethune, Brian. "Tom Rachman's latest novel asks: can a great artist be a good father?". Macleans.ca. Retrieved 29 April 2024.
- ^ "Brad Pitt buys rights to 'The Imperfectionists'". EW.com. Retrieved 29 April 2024.
- ^ "The Debut". University of Toronto Magazine. 14 March 2011. Retrieved 29 April 2024.
- ^ "Articles". Tom Rachman. Retrieved 29 April 2024.
- ^ Clark, Clare (25 December 2018). "The Italian Teacher by Tom Rachman review – great art and monstrous selfishness". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 29 April 2024.
- ^ "Previous shortlists and winners". The Edge Hill Short Story Prize. 20 June 2022. Retrieved 29 April 2024.
- ^ a b Harding, Luke (1 February 2021). "We Are Bellingcat by Eliot Higgins review – the reinvention of reporting for the internet age". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 29 April 2024.
- ^ "Best Canadian Essays 2023". Biblioasis. Retrieved 29 April 2024.
- ^ "Best Canadian Essays 2025". Biblioasis. Retrieved 29 April 2024.
- ^ "All The Globe and Mail's winners and finalists for the 2023 National Newspaper Awards". The Globe and Mail. 26 April 2024. Retrieved 29 April 2024.
- ^ "How I mourned my sister through the books she left behind". Washington Post. 27 May 2016. Retrieved 30 May 2016.
- ^ "Scotiabank Giller Prize 2010 Announces Its Longlist". www.scotiabank.com. Retrieved 23 November 2018.
- ^ "Winners of CAA Literary Awards Revealed - The BPC". www.thebpc.ca. Retrieved 23 November 2018.
- ^ "Shortlist 2018". Short Story. 18 June 2018. Retrieved 23 November 2018.
- ^ "Shortlist for 2018 Costa Book Awards announced". Evening Standard. Retrieved 23 November 2018.
- ^ "Review | For an aging novelist, the blurring lines of fact and fiction". Washington Post. 23 July 2023. ISSN 0190-8286. Retrieved 7 March 2024.
- Christopher Buckley, "The Paper", The New York Times, 30 April 2010.
External links