Join New York Review Books editorial director Edwin Frank and The New Yorker’s James Wood for a reading and conversation about the radical transformations of the 20th century novel — and Frank’s new book, Stranger than Fiction.
The art of the novel — and the ambitions of the writers who created them — streaked across the 20th century like a comet. From Virginia Woolf to V. S. Naipaul, Thomas Mann to Chinua Achebe, Gertrude Stein to Gabriel García Marquez, amid war, revolution, and the invention of automobiles, movies, and the internet, 20th century novelists aimed to create worlds as startling and unforeseen as the one they lived in. This is their story.
In an intimate, urgent conversation, two of our most distinguished literary voices discuss Frank’s remarkable new book, “a comfort, a solace, and a revelation” (Vivian Gornick). What can the novels of the last century tell us about the world we live in today? How can we hear their messages anew? Find out in a century-spanning conversation as revelatory as the literature it explores.
“Epic, personal, smart, wise, witty, with a heart going like mad.” — Joshua Cohen
“A pleasure and an inspiration … brilliant.” — Francine Prose
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