BBC Radio 4 Extra

Bookclub at 20

Authors introduce classics from the literary archive.

Authors introduce classics from the literary archive and remember their own appearances on the literary discussion series.

Bookclub at 20: Elif Shafak on Toni Morrison's Beloved

Elif Shafak on Toni Morrison's Beloved

08/06/2018

BBC Radio 4 Extra - Bookclub at 20, Elif Shafak on Toni Morrison's Beloved

Elif Shafak introduces her own favourite programme from the Bookclub archive.

Elif Shafak introduces her own favourite programme from the Bookclub archive - Toni Morrison talking to James Naughtie about her Pulitzer prize-winning novel, Beloved.

To celebrate Bookclub's 20th anniversary, the programme has invited guest authors to choose a highlight from the extensive Bookclub archive. In this edition Turkish writer Elif Shafak has chosen the second ever edition of Bookclub, Toni Morrison talking about Beloved.

Elif Shafak recalls her appearance on Bookclub to talk about her own book, The Forty Rules of Love. She explains how much she enjoyed the experience because authors rarely have a chance to talk about one piece of work in an intimate setting with readers. She also explains why she thinks women read books differently to men and praises Morrison's portrayal of strong women in Beloved and why the book means so much to her as a writer. 

Toni Morrison is the grand-daughter of a slave from Alabama and all her writing career has been fascinated by what slavery was and how its traces flow down the generations. She won the Pulitzer prize for Beloved and thirty years on, having lost none of its power to shock, Beloved stares unflinchingly into the abyss of racism. It's the story of Sethe who murders her own daughter in preference to being recaptured as slaves. 

The novel transforms history into a poetic chronicle of slavery and its terrible, unending aftermath. Bookclub asks Toni Morrison the question all readers want to hear, is Beloved flesh and blood, or is she in the imagination of the characters who have lived through the terrible events?

Produced by Olivia Seligman

First broadcast on Radio 4 in 1998

Bookclub at 20 is produced for BBC Radio 4 Extra by Belinda Naylor.

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