Negative Capability by Michèle Roberts is a journal of the months which followed the rejection of the author’s most recent novel by her publisher. Subtitled ‘A Diary of Surviving’, Roberts reflects on her life and surroundings as she reconstructs her sense of self amid other difficult circumstances including the sudden deaths of two friends. She spends a lot of time in France (she is half-French) and attempts to edit the novel so that it will appeal to the publisher without sacrificing her artistic vision. The title is drawn from John Keats’ notion of negative capability as “dwelling peacefully within contradictions without striving for rapidly arriving rational solutions” which Roberts uses as a coping strategy in stressful and uncertain times. When writers talk about rejection, it is almost always in the context of their first attempts to get published, and very, very rarely when they have already published over a dozen novels, poetry collections and other non-fiction. ‘Negative Capability’ is a refreshing account of sustaining a long-term career in the publishing industry and how to carry on in the face of disappointment.