Latest news with #historicalfiction
New York Times
6 days ago
- Entertainment
- New York Times
Esi Edugyan Has a Long List of Canadian Writers to Recommend
In an email interview, the Vancouver Island-based novelist described why being a Booker Prize judge turned out to be surprisingly 'exhilarating.' SCOTT HELLER What's the last great book you read? 'Change,' by Édouard Louis. He writes about how the abandonment of modest roots for a more privileged life can enact a kind of violence on intimate relationships. I read everything he writes. What's your go-to classic? I was 18 when I started reading 'Anna Karenina,' and I continue to read it every few years. I remember how grown up and worldly the characters once seemed. Now they are all so young! Your favorite book no one else knows? 'The Cave,' by the Dutch author Tim Krabbé, is an elegant puzzle of a novel. Do books serve a moral function? How so? They can, but they shouldn't set out to. When readers open themselves up to the intensity of another's experience — even that of an invented person — it can be transformative. Books can leave you feeling less singular, strange and alone, but they can also expose you to a way of being that is completely alien to you, against which to measure your own choices. Novels that are written with a pointed moral or a message are not novels. They are propaganda. Do you consider yourself a writer of historical fiction? Every time I describe myself as a writer of historical fiction, I feel an inward cringe as I sense those unfamiliar with my work picturing scenes of ripped-off bodices and men riding horses across twilit downs. Inevitably when I'm asked again, my reply is always the same. Something in that description must feel true. But I chafe against it. When 'Washington Black' came out, you told The Times that it would be 'daunting' to write a novel set in the present. Are you getting closer to trying? The temptation is still to look to parallels in the past for what's going on now. The past has contours the present simply doesn't possess for me; its throughlines feel more easily grasped and wrestled into a kind of shape. But I think it's probably an important skill to be able to confront the moment as it now appears, somehow. What surprised you most about chairing the Booker Prize panel in 2023? What a healthy state literature is in. You can only hear that the novel is dying so many times before you start to feel cynical about the whole enterprise. Paring down the list became excruciating — our jury had many rigorous conversations from which we all mercifully emerged with our limbs still intact. It was a fascinating, combative, respectful, exhilarating experience. What surprised you most about seeing 'Washington Black' adapted for television? I was struck by how much more externalized the storytelling has to be. This would seem an obvious fact, but it can still surprise you. Because characters' inner worlds can't be accessed as readily, everything must be recreated as surface, as something that can be gleaned visually. And so the set design is ferociously intricate, and multitudes are expressed in a glance or a grimace or the way a masterful actor carries her body. In a novel, the writing is everything. In a series or a film, it is one thread of a larger netting. Tell me about western Canadian writers the wider world should know more about. Patrick Lane was one of our greatest poets — his work is in many ways evocative of Cormac McCarthy. Also wonderful are the short stories of Tamas Dobozy and the novels of Patrick deWitt; Michael Christie's era-spanning 'Greenwood'; Jasmine Sealy's epic 'The Island of Forgetting'; Steven Price's elegant 'Lampedusa'; the beautiful poetry of Lorna Crozier and Jan Zwicky. For canonical works, I'd suggest Sheila Watson's high modernist novel 'The Double Hook,' Jack Hodgins' Vancouver Island stories 'Spit Delaney's Island,' and Joy Kogawa's 'Obasan,' about the internment of Japanese Canadians during World War II. How do you organize your books? I recently moved house, so my entire book collection is unfortunately boxed in my garage! When I get the shelving up, I'll again arrange things alphabetically, and also by genre. It's the only way to find anything when you've got over 10,000 books. What's the last book you read that made you laugh? Kevin Wilson's 'The Family Fang' is an utter delight. Katherine Heiny's 'Single, Carefree, Mellow' was also a singular pleasure. What books are on your night stand? Ben Lerner's exquisite '10:04,' which I've somehow only just come to; James Fox's 'The World According to Color: A Cultural History'; Percival Everett's 'James'; Alan Hollinghurst's 'Our Evenings'; Katie Kitamura's 'Audition'; and Donatella Di Pietrantonio's 'The Brittle Age.' What books are you embarrassed not to have read yet? I've never been able to finish 'Moby-Dick,' an admission made all the more dreadful for the fact that it is my partner's favorite novel. You're organizing a literary dinner party. Which three writers, dead or alive, do you invite? Leo Tolstoy, Toni Morrison and Elena Ferrante — though I fear Tolstoy might spend the evening lecturing us on the world's ills.
Wall Street Journal
22-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Wall Street Journal
‘Washington Black' Review: On Hulu, a Swashbuckling Story of Self-Discovery
Based on the 2018 novel by Esi Edugyan, 'Washington Black' inhabits its own particular and unwieldy zone, one that has to accommodate history, social criticism and a classic boy's adventure—one that takes the runaway lad of the title into the air, under the ocean, across the Arctic and into the crossfire of slavers and abolitionists. The moral instruction may be a bit heavy-handed, but the more swashbuckling elements—a mix of Kipling, Twain, Jules Verne and even Frederick Douglass—make for an old-fashioned adventure. What daydreaming kid wouldn't want to run away with pirates? It is also a story, eight episodes long, about fathers and where you find them. When we first meet George Washington Black (Ernest Kingsley Jr.) the setting is 1837 Halifax, Nova Scotia ('the last stop on the Underground Railroad,' as the voiceover tells us), where he's a dockworker in a village whose black citizens are free and happy. This is largely due to Medwin Harris (Sterling K. Brown), who helps people of dubious origins into jobs and out of trouble; bounty hunters have been known to ignore the Canadian border in enforcing the Fugitive Slave Act. Medwin, who has his own backstory, doesn't know much about the young man he calls Jack Crawford, but we will learn it in the parallel narrative that tracks the title character to Canada from his boyhood on a Barbados sugar plantation.
Yahoo
22-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
HarperCollins India is delighted to announce the forthcoming publication of The Chola Tigers: Avengers of Somnath
A scintillating new novel by the bestselling author of the Shiva Trilogy and the Ram Chandra series- Amish The cover of The Chola Tigers was revealed by Indian cinema's superstar and living legend Rajinikanth, along with the author Amish, in a private ceremony in Chennai. NEW DELHI, July 22, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Scheduled for release on 29 August 2025, The Chola Tigers is the second book in Amish's Indic Chronicles, after the bestselling Legend of Suheldev. A thrilling historical saga of defiance, honour and redemption it celebrates the indomitable spirit of India. When the ruthless tyrant Mahmud of Ghazni destroys the sacred temple of Somnath, the greatest ruler of the time, Emperor Rajendra Chola, summons a squad of defiant assassins to embark on a perilous quest and bring the fearsome enemy to his knees. This historical fiction title builds on the world introduced in the 2020 bestseller Legend of Suheldev, which garnered widespread appreciation from readers and went on to become a bestseller. Pacy and action-packed, The Chola Tigers, explores the profound question: How far would you go to defend dharma and your country's honour? On the occasion of the book's announcement, Amish, author, says, "The Chola Tigers is an exhilarating story in which Emperor Rajendra Chola, the mightiest man of his era, orders a daring surgical strike on Ghazni in response to Sultan Mahmud's attack on the Somnath temple. This work of historical fiction is linked to my 2020 release Legend of Suheldev. It is about a mission ordered by one of the greatest Tamilians ever, Emperor Rajendra Chola. And it is a great honour that the cover of this book was released by one of the greatest Tamilians alive and an Indian treasure, Rajinikanth ji." Poulomi Chatterjee, Executive Publisher — HarperCollins India, adds, "Amish has brilliantly reimagined our beloved legends and epics, and episodes from medieval Indian history, for millions of people across the country to enjoy afresh. The new novel is vintage Amish—a sweeping historical saga that is pacy, dramatic, simmering with political intrigue and personal vendetta, and heart-rending in its scenes of sacrifice and retribution. At its heart it masterfully explores the depths of human courage and resilience, and the indomitable spirit of a nation that refuses to be broken. It's going to keep readers spellbound until the final page, and we can't be happier to publish it!" ABOUT THE CHOLA TIGERS The place will be of their choosing. The time will be of their choosing. But the Indians will have their vengeance. 1025 CE, India. Mahmud of Ghazni believes he has crushed the spirit of Bharat—the Shiva Linga at the Somnath temple lies shattered and thousands are dead. But among the ashes of destruction, an oath is taken. Five people—a Tamil warrior, a Gujarati merchant, a devotee of Lord Ayyappa, a scholar-emperor from Malwa, and the most powerful man on Earth, Emperor Rajendra Chola—resolve to undertake a perilous quest and strike at the heart of the invader's kingdom. From the grandeur of the Chola Empire to the shadows of Ghazni's bloodstained court, The Chola Tigers is the scintillating story of a fierce retaliation. A story of unity forged through pain, of courage born from despair, and of vengeance that becomes Dharma. ABOUT THE AUTHOR Amish is a 1974-born, IIM (Kolkata)-educated banker-turned-author. The success of his debut book, The Immortals of Meluha (Book 1 of the Shiva Trilogy), encouraged him to give up his career in financial services to focus on writing. Besides being an author, he is also a broadcaster, the founder of a video gaming company, a film producer and a former diplomat with the Indian government. Amish is passionate about history, spirituality and philosophy, finding beauty and meaning in all world religions. His books have sold more than 8 million copies and have been translated into 21 languages. His Shiva Trilogy is the fastest-selling and his Ram Chandra Series the second-fastest-selling book series in Indian publishing history. His books in The Indic Chronicles, which are based on medieval Indian history, are also blockbuster bestsellers. You can connect with Amish here: ABOUT HARPERCOLLINS INDIA HarperCollins India publishes some of the finest writers from the Indian subcontinent and around the world, publishing approximately 200 new books every year, with a print and digital catalogue of more than 2000 titles across 10 imprints. Its authors have won almost every major literary award including the Man Booker Prize, JCB Prize, DSC Prize, New India Foundation Award, Atta Galatta Prize, Shakti Bhatt Prize, Gourmand Cookbook Award, Publishing Next Award, Tata Literature Live!, Gaja Capital Business Book Prize, BICW Award, Sushila Devi Award, Sahitya Akademi Award and Crossword Book Award. HarperCollins India also represents some of the finest publishers in the world including Harvard University Press, Gallup Press, Oneworld, Bonnier Zaffre, Usborne, Dover and Lonely Planet. HarperCollins India is also the recipient of five Publisher of the Year Awards – in 2021 and 2015 at the Publishing Next Industry Awards, and in 2021, 2018 and 2016 at Tata Literature Live. HarperCollins India is a subsidiary of HarperCollins Publishers. Photo: View original content to download multimedia: Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
New York Times
17-07-2025
- Politics
- New York Times
Join the Club: Lisa Murkowski Hasn't Finished ‘Master of the Senate'
In an email interview, she offered a rich list of Alaska writers to know and explained how reading to her sons prepared her for legislative life. SCOTT HELLER Describe your ideal reading experience. A rainy day at the cabin off the grid in remote Alaska — no phone, no internet, no road access. Chores are done, the wood stove is crackling, everyone else is napping, and Washington is far away. Which genres do you especially enjoy? Historical fiction. I've just picked up 'The First Ladies,' by Marie Benedict and Victoria Christopher Murray. The story revolves around the unlikely friendship of Eleanor Roosevelt and Mary McLeod Bethune, who was born to formerly enslaved parents. What's the last great book you read? 'James,' by Percival Everett. I found myself both laughing and furious. What book best captures the complexity of being a politician today? Robert Fulghum's 'All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten' is a collection of 50 short essays and personal stories with a few rules that honestly would make life a whole lot easier if we all adhered to them: Share everything. Play fair. Don't hit people. Put things back where you found them. Clean up your own mess. Don't take things that aren't yours. Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
Russia Today
14-07-2025
- Politics
- Russia Today
Russian court sentences writer on terror-related charges
A court in Russia has sentenced in absentia writer Grigory Chkhartishvili, known by his pen name Boris Akunin, to a lengthy prison term for facilitating and justifying terrorist activities. The author, who made a name for himself in historical fiction, has not lived in Russia since 2014. He has repeatedly criticized Russia's leadership since the conflict between Russia and Ukraine escalated. In January of 2024, Russian authorities designated Akunin a foreign agent. On Monday, a military court sentenced the writer in absentia to 14 years in prison, while imposing a fine on him of 400,000 rubles ($5,000). According to the prosecution, the author has published statements in the public domain on multiple occasions since 2023 calling for the overthrow of the Russian government by force. In February of 2024, Akunin wrote in a Telegram post that he no longer believed in the possibility of 'evolutionary' change in Russia and expressed support for a revolution. In a phone conversation with Russian pranksters Vovan and Lexus in December of 2023, the writer said he was ready to support Ukraine. Responding to the sentence, Akunin wrote in a Telegram post that he does not 'recognize their court,' dismissing the entire process as a farce. Last week, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told Expert magazine that Russia's current media restrictions are justified. 'This is a time of military censorship that is unprecedented in our country. The war is being fought in the information space as well,' the official argued. Russian authorities have also accused Akunin of breaking the country's 'foreign agent' law by posting content without the mandatory corresponding disclosure. Adopted in 2012, Russia's foreign agent law applies to individuals or entities engaged in financial or political activities in the interests of a foreign state. The designation imposes certain restrictions and requirements: foreign agents must label all their content accordingly, regularly submit detailed financial reports to the Justice Ministry, and disclose their funding sources. Failure to comply is punishable by up to two years in prison.
