Burning Books
56 episodes - English - Latest episode: over 5 years ago - ★★★ - 9 ratingsA show dedicated to discussing, celebrating, exploring (etc) great books, very good books, bad books, and very bad books
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Episodes
The Binding of Isaac by Omri Boehm
August 07, 2018 17:27 - 20 minutes - 18.5 MBA reinterpretation of Genesis 22, Abraham nearly sacrificing his son Isaac, that blew my mind. Download the mp3 file Subscribe in iTunes >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> From recent débuts to classics, fiction to non-fiction, memoirs, philosophy, science, history and journalism, Burning Books separates the smoking from the singeworthy, looking at the pleasures (and pains) of reading, the craft of writing, the ideas that are at the heart of great novels as well as novels that try to be great, but don’t q...
Moods by Yoel Hoffmann
June 14, 2018 08:37 - 20 minutes - 10 MBStart a story that never began and won’t end, spreading like chill to everything made of words, the kind of release that comes from depriving your most often used senses and engaging the ones you neglected. Download the mp3 file Subscribe in iTunes >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> From recent débuts to classics, fiction to non-fiction, memoirs, philosophy, science, history and journalism, Burning Books separates the smoking from the singeworthy, looking at the pleasures (and pains) of reading, the craft...
Khirbet Khizeh by S Yizhar
March 30, 2018 12:58 - 20 minutes - 13.5 MBA soldier reflects on a just-finished mission to systematically round up and expel those left behind in the small village of Khirbet Khizeh. Download the mp3 file Subscribe in iTunes >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> From recent débuts to classics, fiction to non-fiction, memoirs, philosophy, science, history and journalism, Burning Books separates the smoking from the singeworthy, looking at the pleasures (and pains) of reading, the craft of writing, the ideas that are at the heart of great novels as we...
I Pity the Poor Immigrant by Zachary Lazar
March 17, 2018 11:04 - 20 minutes - 17.4 MBFrom King David (aka Kid Bethlehem) to Meyer Lansky via Bugsy Siegel, and the many pulled in their wake, a novel that charges from Las Vegas to Jerusalem, capitals of imaginary kingdoms. Download the mp3 file Subscribe in iTunes >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> From recent débuts to classics, fiction to non-fiction, memoirs, philosophy, science, history and journalism, Burning Books separates the smoking from the singeworthy, looking at the pleasures (and pains) of reading, the craft of writing, the id...
Interview with Todd Hasak-Lowy
March 07, 2018 10:21 - 20 minutes - 29 MBInterview with Todd Hasak-Lowy – author and translator of novels from Hebrew to English, including Dror Burstein’s Netanya – with digressions into Orly Castel-Bloom, Yaakov Shabtai, different kinds of literary culture and the novels they produce. Download the mp3 file Subscribe in iTunes >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> From recent débuts to classics, fiction to non-fiction, memoirs, philosophy, science, history and journalism, Burning Books separates the smoking from the singeworthy, looking at the pl...
Netanya by Dror Burstein
January 01, 2018 17:02 - 20 minutes - 16.5 MBIs it a novel? Memoirs? A book of geology? Anthropology? Marine Biology? Yes yes yes. Download the mp3 file Subscribe in iTunes >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> From recent débuts to classics, fiction to non-fiction, memoirs, philosophy, science, history and journalism, Burning Books separates the smoking from the singeworthy, looking at the pleasures (and pains) of reading, the craft of writing, the ideas that are at the heart of great novels as well as novels that try to be great, but don’t quite ma...
Human Parts by Orly Castel-Bloom
November 29, 2017 17:31 - 20 minutes - 11.5 MBPermanent winter in a desert climate, a dentist with no face, a woman finding material wealth in the midst of poverty, a governmental minister whose full time job is to attend funerals – all this and much, much, much more. Download the mp3 file Subscribe in iTunes >>> From recent débuts to classics, fiction to non-fiction, memoirs, philosophy, science, history and journalism, Burning Books separates the smoking from the singeworthy, looking at the pleasures (and pains) of reading, th...
Almost Dead by Assaf Gavron
November 06, 2017 19:14 - 20 minutes - 14.4 MBThe man who keeps surviving terrorist attacks and the person who is determined to finish him off once and for all square off in this chapter by chapter account of what goes wrong when you add the human element to a simple ideological cataclysm. Download the mp3 file Subscribe in iTunes >>> From recent débuts to classics, fiction to non-fiction, memoirs, philosophy, science, history and journalism, Burning Books separates the smoking from the singeworthy, looking at the pleasures (an...
Dancing Arabs by Sayed Kashua
October 25, 2017 18:45 - 20 minutes - 17 MBA heavyweight tale in featherweight prose. A beautiful story about a boy who slips away into adulthood. A ghost story about a person who’s still alive. Burning Books is back with a brand new season! Download the mp3 file Subscribe in iTunes >>> From recent débuts to classics, fiction to non-fiction, memoirs, philosophy, science, history and journalism, Burning Books separates the smoking from the singeworthy, looking at the pleasures (and pains) of reading, the craft of writing, th...
A Star Called Henry – Roddy Doyle
April 11, 2017 09:19 - 20 minutes - 14.9 MBPart One of the Doyle’s The Last Roundup charts the raising, rising and falling of Henry Smart, scamp of Dublin, caught up in the machine of so-called national so-called liberation. Download the mp3 file Subscribe in iTunes >>> From recent débuts to classics, fiction to non-fiction, memoirs, philosophy, science, history and journalism, Burning Books separates the smoking from the singeworthy, looking at the pleasures (and pains) of reading, the craft of writing, the ideas that are at t...
Three Deaths – Josip Novakovich
February 16, 2017 16:57 - 20 minutes - 12.2 MBA sliver of a book unfolds as a triptych, brilliant and beautiful, the subtlest of writing making the greatest of waves. Featuring Walter Benjamin.. Download the mp3 file Subscribe in iTunes >>> From recent débuts to classics, fiction to non-fiction, memoirs, philosophy, science, history and journalism, Burning Books separates the smoking from the singeworthy, looking at the pleasures (and pains) of reading, the craft of writing, the ideas that are at the heart of great novels as well ...
Some Do Not . . . – Ford Madox Ford
January 20, 2017 20:30 - 20 minutes - 12.5 MBSomebody please hand me a glossary of terrible non-puns from the 1910s, although no post-rationalisation is going to save this dip into the addled mind of a bureaucratic toff. By the author of some very good novels as well as this one. Dot and carry one, WHATEVER THAT MEANS. Download the mp3 file Subscribe in iTunes >>> From recent débuts to classics, fiction to non-fiction, memoirs, philosophy, science, history and journalism, Burning Books separates the smoking from the singeworthy, ...
Regeneration – Pat Barker
December 16, 2016 17:55 - 20 minutes - 17 MBPart one of Pat Barker’s justly renowned trilogy about WWI (re)introduces us to Siegfried Sassoon, Robert Graves, Wilfred Owen, Dr William Rivers and Billy Prior – all men who have been changed beyond recognition by a new, modern mode of civilisation destruction – wash, rinse, repeat. With additional cameos by Erich Maria Remarque and Modris Eksteins. Download the mp3 file Subscribe in iTunes >>> From recent débuts to classics, fiction to non-fiction, memoirs, philosophy, science, h...
My Brilliant Friend – Elena Ferrante
December 01, 2016 14:55 - 20 minutes - 10.9 MBElena is friends with Lila, whom hurts Elena in all kinds of ways that Elena finds fascinating, and painful. Slums, slums, slums, creepy older men, and not a single moment of levity. Prepare yourself. Download the mp3 file Subscribe in iTunes >>> From recent débuts to classics, fiction to non-fiction, memoirs, philosophy, science, history and journalism, Burning Books separates the smoking from the singeworthy, looking at the pleasures (and pains) of reading, the craft of writing, the ...
School of Velocity – Eric Beck Rubin
November 27, 2016 14:46 - 20 minutes - 11.5 MBJan and Dirk were inseparable as teenagers, right up till the moment they separated. That didn’t end the friendship, though, which lives on even as the two grow estranged from one another. Download the mp3 file Subscribe in iTunes >>> From recent débuts to classics, fiction to non-fiction, memoirs, philosophy, science, history and journalism, Burning Books separates the smoking from the singeworthy, looking at the pleasures (and pains) of reading, the craft of writing, the ideas that a...
River of Smoke – Amitav Ghosh
November 21, 2016 12:43 - 25 minutes - 19.6 MBPart Two of Ghosh’s ‘Ibis’ Trilogy looks at the run-up to the Opium Wars. From Bombay to Canton, Mauritius to Malacca – set sail for adventure, knowledge, and a number of excellent descriptions of the twists and turns of the early 18th century, globalised drug trade. Download the mp3 file Subscribe in iTunes >>> From recent débuts to classics, fiction to non-fiction, memoirs, philosophy, science, history and journalism, Burning Books separates the smoking from the singeworthy, looking ...
The Sportswriter – Richard Ford
November 10, 2016 11:39 - 25 minutes - 14.5 MBNew Jersey stands in for Algeria, not that Frank Bascombe would have noticed, living the good life and everything’s okay and nothing bears too much looking into – like the giant chasm of nothingness opening up beneath his feet. With guest appearances from Steinbeck, Faulkner and AC himself. Download the mp3 file Subscribe in iTunes >>> From recent débuts to classics, fiction to non-fiction, memoirs, philosophy, science, history and journalism, Burning Books separates the smoking from th...
Public Service Announcement: School of Velocity - Burning Books Format Changes
August 09, 2016 12:00 - 25 minutes - 2.15 MBImportant news from Eric! Download the mp3 file Subscribe in iTunes >>> From recent débuts to classics, fiction to non-fiction, memoirs, philosophy, science, history and journalism, Burning Books separates the smoking from the singeworthy, looking at the pleasures (and pains) of reading, the craft of writing, the ideas that are at the heart of great novels as well as novels that try to be great, but don’t quite make it. http://litopia.com/shows/burn/
The Adversary – Emmanuel Carrère
February 08, 2016 19:23 - 25 minutes - 13.7 MBIn the quiet Jura region of France, a physician goes completely haywire in a series of crimes that are hard for his friends and acquaintances to grasp. But then their grasp loosens further. And disappears altogether. Because the man at the centre, the man they thought they knew, turns out to be a dangerous and violent stranger. And now I know what it feels like to write a Dateline teaser. Non-fiction. Download the mp3 file Subscribe in iTunes >>> From recent débuts to classics, fiction...
My Name is Asher Lev – Chaim Potok
January 10, 2016 18:41 - 25 minutes - 16.7 MBTender Asher Lev has a gift – he can draw exceptionally well – and a drive to be an artist. Everyone around him has a drive to make him into a leader in the Ladover Hasidic community, spreading the word of Ladover Hasidism to the far corners of the world. Something has to give. It gives. A story that starts very well. Download the mp3 file Subscribe in iTunes >>> From recent débuts to classics, fiction to non-fiction, memoirs, philosophy, science, history and journalism, Burning Books ...
Morality Play – Barry Unsworth
December 18, 2015 14:07 - 25 minutes - 13.7 MBMonk on the run in 14th Century England has more to worry about than building himself a time machine to get out of 14th Century England. Obviously kidding about the sci-fi bit because this is Barry Unsworth. The book is the time machine. The moral of the story is less story, more moral. Photo Douglas R Witt Download the mp3 file Subscribe in iTunes >>> From recent débuts to classics, fiction to non-fiction, memoirs, philosophy, science, history and journalism, Burning Books separates ...
Latecomers – Anita Brookner
December 01, 2015 21:16 - 25 minutes - 15.8 MBHartmann and Fibitch arrived in England as refugees on the Kindertransport and then they had had wives and children and those children had families and – what was the point of this story again? Served (saved?) with a side of Sebald (how can you not) plus the flavour of Rushforth, which is the name of an author. Download the mp3 file Subscribe in iTunes >>> From recent débuts to classics, fiction to non-fiction, memoirs, philosophy, science, history and journalism, Burning Books separat...
The Scapegoat – Sophia Nikolaidou
October 02, 2015 19:46 - 25 minutes - 13.3 MBThe real life murder mystery of a CBS reporter is foreground and backdrop for a modern day high school student trying to figure out why the wrong man was put down. Also a love story. Salonic. Picture: George Laoutaris Download the mp3 file Subscribe in iTunes >>> From recent débuts to classics, fiction to non-fiction, memoirs, philosophy, science, history and journalism, Burning Books separates the smoking from the singeworthy, looking at the pleasures (and pains) of reading, the craf...
Little Man, What Now? – Hans Fallada
September 06, 2015 07:07 - 25 minutes - 17.4 MBPinneberg is the Little Man; What Now is what everyone is asking at the outset of the Depression, when this novel is set. Fallada’s novel is about the piece by piece destruction of a young man by forces that are both incomprehensibly great and pathetically familiar, from the collapse of the world economy to the failure of basic decency. I’m overwhelmed just writing this ditty. But that’s what you get when you read Hans Fallada. Download the mp3 file Subscribe in iTunes >>> From recent ...
Frost - Thomas Bernhard
August 13, 2015 10:23 - 25 minutes - 14.8 MBMedical intern sent by boss to spy on a painter named of Strauch. What the intern finds is the gaping wound of Lower Austria, which may or may not stand in for the entire world. Extremely bleak. Extremely funny. Basically, extreme in all senses. Photo: Florin Draghici Download the mp3 file Subscribe in iTunes >>> From recent débuts to classics, fiction to non-fiction, memoirs, philosophy, science, history and journalism, Burning Books separates the smoking from the singeworthy, lo...
Master Georgie – Beryl Bainbridge
July 24, 2015 16:46 - 25 minutes - 11.8 MBSpare parts make up the engine of this rickety ride from here to there. One solipsistic young man from England leads friends and acquaintances to Crimea, and for some reason they follow him. With allusions to Nicholson Baker and Peter Carey, this episode also features a drop from Masterchef Australia, which is what I’m into these days. The plating was not successful. Download the mp3 file Subscribe in iTunes >>> From recent débuts to classics, fiction to non-fiction, memoirs, philosoph...
The German Mujahid – Boualem Sansal
July 03, 2015 09:31 - 25 minutes - 21.3 MBA history of one aspect of the Nazi genocide is brought to present day Parisian suburbs via a massacre in an Algerian village. Extremism, integration, ghettos, religion – all the elements are refashioned to their new context. A memorably good book by an excellent writer and thinker. Fresh. Photo - John Perivolaris Download the mp3 file Subscribe in iTunes >>> From recent débuts to classics, fiction to non-fiction, memoirs, philosophy, science, history and journalism, Burning Books se...
The Luzhin Defense – Vladimir Nabokov
June 08, 2015 08:59 - 25 minutes - 16.7 MB1. e4 d6 2. d4 Nf6 3. Nc3 g6 4. Be3 Bg7 5. Qd2 c6 6. f3 b5 7. Nge2 Nbd7 8. Bh6 Bh6 9. Qh6 Bb7 10. a3 e5 11. O-O-O Qe7 12. Kb1 a6 13. Nc1 O-O-O 14. Nb3 ed4 15. Rd4 c5 16. Rd1 Nb6 17. g3 Kb8 18. Na5 Ba8 19. Bh3 d5 20. Qf4 Ka7 21. Rhe1 d4 22. Nd5 Nbd5 23. ed5 Qd6 24. Rd4 cd4 25. Re7 Kb6 26. Qd4 Ka5 27. b4 Ka4 28. Qc3 Qd5 29. Ra7 Bb7 30. Rb7 Qc4 31. Qf6 Ka3 32. Qa6 Kb4 33. c3 Kc3 34. Qa1 Kd2 35. Qb2 Kd1 36. Bf1 Rd2 37. Rd7 Rd7 38. Bc4 bc4 39. Qh8 Rd3 40. Qa8 c3 41. Qa4 Ke1 42. f4 f5 43. Kc1 Rd2...
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man - James Joyce
May 15, 2015 15:55 - 25 minutes - 11.5 MBCan’t seem to shake the memoirs thing . . . This time it’s James Joyce writing about himself as the character Stephen Dedalus, a precocious, self-regarding artiste who one day is destined to become James Joyce. Not necessary. Photo by ☰☵ Michele M. F. Download the mp3 file Subscribe in iTunes >>> From recent débuts to classics, fiction to non-fiction, memoirs, philosophy, science, history and journalism, Burning Books separates the smoking from the singeworthy, looking at the pleasur...
Deaf Sentence – David Lodge
April 24, 2015 15:18 - 25 minutes - 21.5 MBAuthor David Lodge stars as his thinly disguised protagonist, Old Man Bates, who is entering retirement, uselessness, and, worst of all, permanent deafness, in this tragi-comi-tragic tale of David Lodge, starring as his protagonist. Largely good. Picture by clogsilk >>> Download the mp3 file Subscribe in iTunes >>> From recent débuts to classics, fiction to non-fiction, memoirs, philosophy, science, history and journalism, Burning Books separates the smoking from the singeworthy,...
A Tale of Love and Darkness – Amos Oz
April 03, 2015 08:45 - 25 minutes - 24.1 MBOne of the world’s great authors goes back in time and space – from the Jerusalem of the 1940s to the Eastern Europe of the 19th Century, from a boy's heart to a mother’s face to a father’s brain – and brings back everything, but not enough. Cuts close and hurts so good. Wizardly? Masterful. >>> Download the mp3 file Subscribe in iTunes >>> From recent débuts to classics, fiction to non-fiction, memoirs, philosophy, science, history and journalism, Burning Books separates the smoking ...
Exiles – Michael J Arlen
March 12, 2015 13:11 - 25 minutes - 22.4 MBThe name Michael Arlen will mean nothing to most readers but Arlen was once the cream of the jazz age novelists, the envy of Hemingway, Fitzgerald and Maugham, the owner of speedboats and a villa on the Mediterranean. Then he fell completely into obscurity. By the time his son was born, the golden days were past tense, with the father coasting on his stardust. This is the story of that. Sage butter. >>> Download the mp3 file Subscribe in iTunes >>> From recent débuts to classics, fict...
Hadrian's Memoirs – Marguerite Yourcenar
February 24, 2015 09:20 - 25 minutes - 16.8 MBAt the end of his days, sitting in his villa outside Rome, the Emperor Hadrian writes a long letter to his adopted son, and next great leader of Rome, Marcus Aurelius. In Hadrian’s world, thoughts duel with power, ideas with reality, books with life. Aurelius often gets praise as the first philosopher king, but in this telling it’s Hadrian who is as much thinker as conqueror. Marguerite Yourcenar’s towering intellect and faultless prose bring Second Century Rome to life. Yeah, it’s good. ...
Measuring the World - Daniel Kehlmann
January 30, 2015 14:29 - 25 minutes - 16.2 MBGauss and Humboldt set off to the same destination in opposite directions and unfortunately this novel was written about it. Tedious. >>> Download the mp3 file Subscribe in iTunes >>> From recent débuts to classics, fiction to non-fiction, memoirs, philosophy, science, history and journalism, Burning Books separates the smoking from the singeworthy, looking at the pleasures (and pains) of reading, the craft of writing, the ideas that are at the heart of great novels as well as novels ...
Shantytown – César Aira
January 09, 2015 19:45 - 25 minutes - 17.3 MBFall forward into one of the stranger stories you’ll encounter this year – or any other. Maxi, a young man from the middle classes of Buenos Aires, collects used cardboard, lifts weights, busts a drug ring, but can’t seem to surprise a sleeping street kid. Makes sense, right? No? Who cares – no plot outline is going to tell you what’s actually in the book. Different. >>> Download the mp3 file Subscribe in iTunes >>> From recent débuts to classics, fiction to non-fiction, memoirs, phil...
The Nature of Blood – Caryl Phillips
December 12, 2014 12:40 - 25 minutes - 16.6 MBA novel that includes displaced persons, new countries, war, Cyprus, the OED, Venice, Blood Libel and Othello – this should be sweet. So why does it all taste so healthy? Caryl Phillips sucks all the sugar out of what should be a thrilling experience. Why? Granola. >>> Download the mp3 file Subscribe in iTunes >>> From recent débuts to classics, fiction to non-fiction, memoirs, philosophy, science, history and journalism, Burning Books separates the smoking from the singeworthy, look...
Darkness at Noon - Arthur Koestler
November 21, 2014 10:40 - 28 minutes - 20.2 MBOne man goes against the system he helped create and the results are not encouraging. Koestler fictionalises the Moscow Show Trials of the 1930s, where parts are fused onto the whole and the whole is broken into parts. A masterful novel. >>> Download the mp3 file Subscribe in iTunes >>> From recent débuts to classics, fiction to non-fiction, memoirs, philosophy, science, history and journalism, Burning Books separates the smoking from the singeworthy, looking at the pleasures (and pai...
Hygiene and the Assassin – Amélie Nothomb
October 17, 2014 10:27 - 28 minutes - 20.6 MBMorbidly obese misery of a writer – and Nobel Laureate (topical) – more than meets his match in the slender and deadly Nina, who conducts the last interview of the writer’s life. Secrets are dredged up and, in a twist, it *is* pretty. Keep your daggers handy. This is going to get nasty. >>> Download the mp3 file Subscribe in iTunes >>> From recent débuts to classics, fiction to non-fiction, memoirs, philosophy, science, history and journalism, Burning Books separates the smoking from ...
Truth or Beauty – David Orrell
September 26, 2014 12:00 - 28 minutes - 27 MBFrom particle physics to market predictions, we thought scientists, right or wrong, traded in the world of facts. What we did not expect is that all the while they were deeply concerned about their looks. Beauty is at the heart of scientific endeavour, and has always been. As the stakes get higher, however, can we afford to have outdated notions of aesthetics guide the way we engage with the world? We look at this specific question, as well as the many baby questions to which it gives birt...
Demons (aka The Possessed) - Fyodor Dostoevsky
September 05, 2014 10:03 - 28 minutes - 20.2 MBEverything’s more or less normal in the little town of N until Piotr Stepanovich and his equally psychopathic sidekick, Nikolai Stavrogin, come back from abroad. One thing leads to another leads to another and another and some more after that in Dostoevsky’s extraordinarily rambling (as rambling as this sentence) novel, which does not end well for anyone involved, reader included. The devil inside, the devil inside, every single hour of reading this book – the devil inside. >>> Download t...
The Universal Baseball Association, Inc., J. Henry Waugh, Prop. - Robert Coover
August 15, 2014 10:55 - 28 minutes - 13.2 MBLike a precocious fireballer at top of the prospect rankings … a kid who has shown so much promise and from whom so much is expected … who has three plus pitches and is working on a fourth … whose intangibles are as off the charts as his athleticism … who is putting it all together at AAA and knocking at the door … who will make men look like boys … and who ends up THE OPPOSITE OF ALL THOSE THINGS – that’s this book. Download the mp3 file Subscribe in iTunes From recent débuts to classi...
The Devil – Leo Tolstoy
July 25, 2014 13:18 - 28 minutes - 17.6 MBSt Matthew is going to poke out your eyes. Or some such. After what seemed like a millennium of exile from the Motherland, we go back to the heart (and other parts) of Russian literature with a Tolstoy short story. Brilliant.
A True Novel - Minae Mizumura
July 06, 2014 10:31 - 28 minutes - 27.8 MBA novel that says it’s based on Wuthering Heights is taking a risk – because Wuthering Heights is a crazy effective soporific. But the further it strays from the original, the better A True Novel becomes. Don’t underestimate your originality, Minae Mizumura! You’ve produced an eminently entertaining read. In a nice turn, this very long book is actually quite short. Picture by Toshihiro Gamo
American Pastoral - Philip Roth
June 13, 2014 04:30 - 38 minutes - 36 MBFeel like making glove?? That's not a typo. This week we discuss perhaps the best passage in any of Philip Roth's novels, the 'glovemaking scene' (again, not a typo) in American Pastoral. And we do this with American lit scholar and Gloversville, NY native, Menachem Feuer. Also, we discuss the definition of a schlemiel, a person who could never make a glove. And Franz Kafka makes an appearance at the end – another person we can safely assume was not versed in the art of glovemaking, IN ANY S...
Satan in Goray - Isaac Bashevis Singer
May 23, 2014 04:30 - 27 minutes - 25.1 MBThe Messiah is coming! His arrival is imminent! That’s the bad news... The good news is his arrival and social schedule are narrated with a combination of enthralled immediacy and distrustful distance by a Nobel Laureate, Isaac Bashevis Singer. And yet, is it ‘all that’? Some readers will be super-pumped, others might not catch messiah fever. All the colours of the rainbow.
Seven Days in the Art World - Sarah Thornton
May 02, 2014 04:30 - 21 minutes - 20.2 MB'They believe what they say in the moment they say it.' And then the moment is gone, and someone's stuck with a desiccated horse's head or a painting of Jesus framed in piss. In this episode we learn about the high prices and low motives of the contemporary art world while schmoozing in Basel, getting lost in Venice, and, once or twice, encountering genius along the way. Going once, going twice, going three times . . . sold!
A Heart So White - Javier Marías
April 11, 2014 04:30 - 19 minutes - 18.4 MBDid we like this novel? What does it mean to like? What is our past, really, if we continue to relive it? And relieve it? And relive it? And – you get the point, but I'll say it again. And again. And – you have just sampled the experience of reading Javier Marías' massively successful novel. Eat this book! It's good for you! Now, wasn't that satisfying?
The Notebooks of Malte Laurids Brigge - Rainer Maria Rilke
March 21, 2014 04:30 - 32 minutes - 30.6 MBEnter the eminently other world of Malte Laurids Brigge – and don't plan on coming back in one piece. The big window shatters and the little pieces giggle. What? You didn't hear that? We talk about Rainer Maria Rilke's one and only novel with literary critic Scott Esposito.
The Blue Fox - Sjón
February 07, 2014 07:00 - 11 minutes - 11.6 MBThings are not what they appear to be, and not even what they appear later to be. Foxes are animals that cannot be trusted, and sometimes they are not even animals. This is that in Sjón's slender novel. Intriguing.
The Man Who Made Vermeers - Jonathan Lopez
January 18, 2014 05:00 - 20 seconds - 18.9 MBIs there anything better than the story of a master forger? If there is, I don't know it. This time we take a trip to the realm of non-fiction, looking into the complex world of Han Van Meegeren, a forger working in the style of Frans Hals and, especially, Johannes Vermeer, who sold his work to Hermann Goering, then tried to convince the world it was in the name of patriotism.