Open Book

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Programme looking at new fiction and non-fiction books

Programme looking at new fiction and non-fiction books, talking to authors and publishers and unearthing lost classics

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Open Book: Jonathan Lethem; Sylvia Townsend Warner; Edna O'Brien

13/12/2020

Jonathan Lethem; Sylvia Townsend Warner; Edna O'Brien

BBC Radio 4 - Open Book, Jonathan Lethem; Sylvia Townsend Warner; Edna O'Brien

Chris Power talks to Jonathan Lethem about his new novel The Arrest, a speculative story of what happens when technology fails and self sufficiency makes a comeback.

Chris Power talks to  Jonathan Lethem, author of Motherless Brooklyn and The Fortress of Solitude, about his latest novel The Arrest. Set in the near future, a mysterious event - The Arrest - has caused all modern technology to stop working and daily life has returned to a model of quiet self sufficiency. Journeyman, the book’s main character and a Hollywood screenwriter before the apocalypse,  find his life turned upside down when his old friend Peter Todbaum, rolls into town in an impregnable nuclear-powered car! 

Sylvia Townsend Warner published her first novel Lolly Willowes in 1926, and went on to write poetry, music and shorts stories, over 150 of which appeared in the New Yorker between 1930s and 1970s. Now, a reissue of Lolly Willowes and a new anthology of short stories  English Climate: Wartime Stories offer the chance to modern readers to get to know her work better. Chris is joined by Helen Macdonald, author of H is for Hawk, and editor at Persephone, Lydia Fellgett to explore her life and writing. 

And this week Dame Edna O'Brien turns 90, and to mark the occasion shares the Book She'd Never Lend.

Intelligent speech, the most insightful journalism, the wittiest comedy, the most fascinating features and the most compelling drama and readings anywhere in UK radio.

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Open Book

Jonathan Lethem; Sylvia Townsend Warner; Edna O'Brien

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