NYRB publicist Nick During joins us to discuss Akenfield: Portrait of an English Village by Ronald Blythe, who passed away earlier this year at the age of 100. We talk about the tricky business of categorization, the tension between work and vocation, and the nature of agricultural society.
Massive thank you to John Hoekstra, who composed our theme music.
References:
BookCourt
Edwin Frank
Word from Wormingford
The View in Winter
John Piper
Shell Guides
John Nash
Cedric Morris
Charfield
Studs Terkel
Matt Weiland
Antony Beevor
Stalingrad by Vasily Grossman
The Red Thread: Twenty Years of NYRB Classics
The Hunchback of Notre-Dame
Fenwomen: A Portrait of Women in an English Village by Mary Chamberlain
Iris Murdoch
Chinese translator Canaan Morse returns to explain how Eliot Weinberger's critical (and often cutting) analysis can help us see classical writing in new ways....
Dylan and Kassia unpack Stefan Zweig's Chess Story translated from German by Joel Rotenberg. They toy with some chess pieces, discuss the psychological effects...
Writer and translator Frank Wynne joins us to discuss The Radiance of the King written by Camara Laye and translated from French by James...