At Literary Hub, you’ll find a conversation between Nuruddin Farah and Ivan Vladislavić on a variety of topics. (We interviewed Vladislavić last year.) One of the areas of discussion focused on Vladislavić’s political awareness as a writer. In his response, he alluded to his search for the best way to address the politics of apartheid-era South Africa in his own work, and took influence from an unexpected place.
William T. Vollmann on Danilo Kis and Unlikely Literary Homages
In the midst of a By the Book interview for the New York Times, William T. Vollmann takes a moment to discuss his appreciation of the work of Danilo Kis, author of The Encyclopedia of the Dead and A Tomb for Boris Davidovich. His interrelated characters, who occasionally make cameo appearances in each other’s stories, play vivid parts in a Stalinist drama whose grim vastness invariably swallows them up. My novel “Europe Central” was homage to Kis. Unfortunately, I tend […]