Benjamin Markovits

Benjamin Markovits is an American-British novelist, essayist, and academic whose thoughtful literary fiction explores family, ambition, and the gap between the lives we imagine and the lives we lead. He grew up in Texas, London, and Berlin, studied English at Yale University and later at Oxford, and spent time as a professional basketball player in Germany before turning to writing. He teaches Creative Writing at Royal Holloway, University of London. Markovits has published numerous novels, including Playing Days (drawing on his basketball experience), A Quiet Adjustment, Childish Loves, and a trilogy about Lord Byron. A Weekend in New York follows a former tennis professional whose family tensions boil over during the US Open. His novel The Rest of Our Lives was shortlisted for the Booker Prize in 2025. He was selected by Granta as one of their Best of Young British Novelists in 2013 and won the James Tait Black Memorial Prize in 2015. His fiction is marked by psychological precision, a keen understanding of competitive drive, and an ability to chart the subtle dynamics within families. His audiobooks and books offer listeners and readers literary fiction that examines how people succeed and fail, and what ambition costs those around them.