Literary miniatures / Florence Noiville ; translated by Teresa Lavender Fagan

"A rich collection of portraits of some of the greatest writers of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries"--Page ix

Includes bibliographical references

Translator's note.--Aharon Appelfeld: the salvation of sleep.--Saul Bellow: the hermit of Vermont.--Neil Bissoondath: reflecting on the secrets we keep.--A.S. Byatt: conversations with ghosts.--Don DeLillo: fiction helps us see and question ourselves.--Carlos Fuentes: the Iberindian.--Carlo Ginzburg: 'I prefer to trust in reality'.--Nadine Gordimer: the 'white African'.--Yu Hua: ten words.--Kazuo Ishiguro: words full of sound.--Imre Kertész: betting on life.--Milan Kundera: only the work matters.--John le Carré: triple agent.--Carlos Liscano: literature born of a prison cell.--Mario Vargas Llosa: one: literature is not a diversion.--Mario Vargas Llosa: two: public healer.--Javier Marías: we have all experienced betrayal
Toni Morrison: 'without writing, I am lost'.--Harry Mulisch: overly dangerous zones.--Herta Müller: 'I don't trust eternity'.--Cees Nooteboom: soaring alongside the divine.--Jean-Bertrand Pontalis: we are made of thousands of others.--Sempé: 'nostalgia makes me laugh'.--Ersi Sotiropoulos: studying the inner movements of awareness.--William Trevor: 'I write because I want to know'.--Tomi Ungerer: the old robber.--Thanassis Valtinos: substance.--Enrique Vila-Matas: we're all actors on a stage.

Selected from the pages of "Le Monde", this title features the interviews conducted by Florence Noiville, who captures the words and views of some of the best-known writers of the twentieth century, engaging luminaries like Saul Bellow, Nadine Gordimer, Aharon Appelfeld, and A S Byatt in revealing dialogue.