On Exile and Language - World Literature Weekend 2010

Tahar Ben Jelloun has won wide acclaim for his novels, including Sacred Night and Leaving Tangier. His latest book of poetry, The Rising of the Ashes, responds to the war in Iraq. Atiq Rahimi, filmmaker and novelist, won the Prix Goncourt for The Patience Stone, in which a woman speaks uncensored to her comatose husband; through her story, Rahimi confronts female oppression in his native Afghanistan. Eli Amir’s book The Dove Flyer springs from his childhood experiences in Jewish Baghdad. These three writers came to the London Review Bookshop to speak on their experiences of the writing and language of exile. The discussion was chaired by Adam Shatz, senior editor at The London Review of Books, with interpreter Carine Kennedy.