Front Row: David Foster Wallace's The Pale King

Front Row reports on The Pale King by American writer David Foster Wallace which is being published posthumously today, following the 46-year-old American author's long battle with depression and eventual suicide in 2008.

Arts editor Will Gompertz on what made Wallace's writing so special, and why many credit him with reinventing the great American novel.

Paul Murphy is the acting editor of the Radio 4 blog

• Kirsty Lang reports on the publication of The Pale King on Front Row tonight at 19:15 on BBC Radio 4
• The pitfalls of posthumous publishing
• The photo of David Foster Wallace is by Steve Rhodes taken in 2006 in San Francisco. Some rights reserved.