The Book Club: How To Play A Game Without Rules episode artwork

EPISODE · Jan 15, 2026 · 35 MIN

The Book Club: How To Play A Game Without Rules

from Best of the Spectator

My guest in this week’s Book Club is Joanna Kavenna, who talks about her witty, philosophically riddling new novel Seven: Or, How To Play A Game Without Rules. She tells me about taking her bearings from Italo Calvino, making up a board game and then being the world’s worst player at it, how AI challenges our sense of ourselves – and how Morten Harket found his way into her fiction. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

My guest in this week’s Book Club is Joanna Kavenna, who talks about her witty, philosophically riddling new novel Seven: Or, How To Play A Game Without Rules. She tells me about taking her bearings from Italo Calvino, making up a board game and then being the world’s worst player at it, how AI challenges our sense of ourselves – and how Morten Harket found his way into her fiction. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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The Book Club: How To Play A Game Without Rules

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This episode is 35 minutes long.

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This episode was published on January 15, 2026.

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My guest in this week’s Book Club is Joanna Kavenna, who talks about her witty, philosophically riddling new novel Seven: Or, How To Play A Game Without Rules. She tells me about taking her bearings from Italo Calvino, making up a board game and...

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