I came to this session because of my interest in the Spanish Civil War. This was my father's war; when the brigadistas had their reunion in Spain a few years ago, I attended this moving event with members of my family.
Javier Cercas read from his book SOLDIERS OF SALAMIS a passage in which the a republican fighter escapes the Fascists, and a Fascist soldier who discovers him does not turn him in. Cercas read in Spanish; the passage was then read in English by Amanda Vaill.
She started her interview by asking him how he began writing novels, but this soon led to an interesting discussion of how his main character, often named Javier, is like him and not like him. Cercas...
At the 92nd Street YM-YWHA on Friday, the novelist and essayist Shirley Hazzardengaged the novelist Richard Ford in a conversation about reading and writing that was so warm, and literate, and amusing, and inspiring that it provoked something I don’t often encounter at literary events: a standing ovation. At her entrance, Ms Hazzard supported herself with a cane, but as she limped nobly to her chair, she brought us into her fold. “Excuse me,” she said, turning our way before she was even seated. “I’ve got a game leg.” That is, she was bonding with her audience at 60 m.p.h., even before Mr. Ford—who walked out with the assured gait of Clint Eastwood—could get a word in edgewise. Now, Mr. Ford is...
Pakistan: the world’s most dangerous country, read American papers.
America: the world’s most dangerous country, read Pakistani papers.
A Pakistani novelist, a Vietnamese short-story writer and a Syrian-born poet/translator spoke with eloquent hope about the idea that, scattered across the globe, we are more alike than we are different. But their conversation shined a spotlight on opposing worldviews that stem from varied cultural, historical and religious backgrounds.
Perhaps the clearest examples of those discordant views during the panel titled “East-West Storytelling” came from Nadeem Aslam, author most recently of The Wasted Vigil, set in Afghanistan, and also of Maps for Lost Lovers, about Pakistani emigrants living in England. He mentioned that he reads here in our newspapers about the most dangerous country...
Using words to talk about words is trickier than you might think when the topic is writing stirring, meaningful novels. There’s a mystery to the process, which perhaps is as it should be.
“The best part of a novel is what you can never express in words,” said Norwegian author Jan Kjaerstad, part of a panel of four award-winning, renowned, and very thoughtful novelists discussing Where The Truth Lies: A Conversation on the Art of Fiction. The best gift fiction can give its readers is the possibility of understanding human motivation beyond what he referred to as “darkness.”
Kentucky-born American author Roxana Robinson picked up that theme and pushed it further, noting that writers often write into their own personal darkness. “You’re part...
