In the past year, Patrick Modiano has been hailed by American book critics for his Nobel Prize-winning literary art, rightly described as “elegant,” “haunting,” and “urbane.” In books such as Suspended Sentences, Paris Nocturne, and After the Circus, his immense gifts as a novelist—one who melds ambiguous autobiographical and impressionistic details into narratives
Patrick Modiano— Late at night, a long time ago, when I was about to turn twenty-one, I was crossing Place des Pyramides on my way to Place de la Concorde when a car appeared suddenly from out of the darkness. At first I thought it had just grazed me, then
John Donatich— “Can modern man, in today’s society, still fall in love?” This seems to me the central question in the work of Can Xue. Granted, this might come as a surprise—that a writer who is so rigorously experimental and unapologetically demanding is obsessed with such a personal concern. But
Mark Polizzotti— The Paris of Patrick Modiano’s fictions is a city that no longer exists, and perhaps never did. There is a character and a topology typical of his version of the city, a peculiar atmosphere (even when the sun is blazing, the streets seem shrouded in gray), an architecture,
For everyone heading to the beach this Fourth of July, here’s a list of books for your seaside reading. Some will inspire you, some will ask you to reflect, and some will take you on their own summer vacations. And if you don’t find what you’re looking for here, we
Simran Chahal— After the recent and controversial release of India’s Daughter, a documentary regarding the brutal gang rape of 23 year-old physiotherapy student Jyoti Singh in 2012, many questions are being raised about the status of women in Indian society. However, though I support the unearthing of such stark realities
The Dirty War was a campaign by the government of Argentina to suppress left-wing political opponents. It is estimated that during the period from 1976 to 1983, 10,000 to 30,000 citizens were killed or taken by the government and never heard from again. It was against this backdrop of violence
The very first Mother’s Day was celebrated in 1908 in Grafton, West Virginia when Anna Jarvis’s held a memorial for her late mother, Ann Reeves Jarvis, who had died in 1905. Her campaign to make Mother’s Day a recognized holiday in the United States found success years later when Woodrow Wilson signed a
Happy National Readathon Day! The National Book Foundation has organized the holiday to promote a love of reading and to make sure that the book worm doesn’t become an endangered species. You can find out how to support the foundation’s efforts here, but the most important thing is to set aside
Fady Joudah, Palestinian-American, physician, celebrated poet and translator of poetry, and winner of the 2007 Yale Series of Younger Poets Competition for his collection Earth in the Attic, discusses the inherent linguistic and subjective difficulties that each translator must face when presented with a work to be translated in his