One Island, Two Men and Lots of Big Questions
The Book Review3 Juni 2022

One Island, Two Men and Lots of Big Questions

Karen Jennings’s novel “An Island,” which was on the longlist for the Booker Prize in 2021, is set on a fictional unnamed island off the coast of Africa, where a man named Samuel has worked as a lighthouse keeper for more than 20 years. When a refugee washes up on shore one day, barely alive, Samuel navigates life around this stranger and flashes back to his own past, including his role in a political uprising and years that he spent in prison. On this week’s podcast, Jennings says that the book’s somewhat fable-like tone was very intentional.

“I knew that if I were to write about any one specific country, then I would have to make it about that country: that country’s political events, that country’s culture,” Jennings says. “My plan was to make it more universal, and attempt to understand something greater, something more complex. And the only way that I could see to do that was to do it in this very pared-down, focused way, reducing most of the action to this fictional island and then to these brief moments — I guess kind of like highlights — from Samuel’s past.”

Phil Klay, the Marine Corps veteran and acclaimed fiction writer, visits the podcast this week to talk about a new collection of his nonfiction writing, “Uncertain Ground: Citizenship in an Age of Endless, Invisible War.”

“There’s a huge problem when we’re regularly sending troops to kill people and sending troops at risk and the president is not forced on a regular basis to go before Congress to explain what the mission is, how it’s in the national interest, what it’s going to cost, what we’re trying to achieve,” Klay says. “I think that war is the most morally fraught thing we can do as a nation, and it demands more democratic accountability.”

Also on this week’s episode, Dwight Garner and Alexandra Jacobs talk about books they’ve recently reviewed. John Williams is the host.

Here are the books discussed by the Times’s critics this week:

“Phil” by Alan Shipnuck

“Here’s the Deal” by Kellyanne Conway

We would love to hear your thoughts about this episode, and about the Book Review’s podcast in general. You can send them to books@nytimes.com.

Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. You can also subscribe via your favorite podcast app here https://www.nytimes.com/activate-access/audio?source=podcatcher. For more podcasts and narrated articles, download The New York Times app at nytimes.com/app.


Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Avsnitt(589)

Inside The New York Times Book Review: The Year in Poetry

Inside The New York Times Book Review: The Year in Poetry

This week, Parul Sehgal and Gregory Cowles discuss the year in poetry; Alexandra Alter has news from the publishing world; George Saunders talks about children’s books; and Cowles has best-seller news...

24 Dec 201539min

Inside The New York Times Book Review: From Movement to Mainstream

Inside The New York Times Book Review: From Movement to Mainstream

This week, Sam Tanenhaus discusses two new books about the history of American conservatism; Alexandra Alter has news from the publishing world; Lori Gottlieb talks about Courtney Jung’s “Lactivism”; ...

18 Dec 201539min

Inside The New York Times Book Review: Reading ‘Pride and Prejudice’

Inside The New York Times Book Review: Reading ‘Pride and Prejudice’

This week, Rosamund Pike talks about recording “Pride and Prejudice” as an audiobook; Alexandra Alter has news from the publishing world; Kaiama Glover discusses the work of Patrick Modiano; James Sha...

11 Dec 201549min

Inside The New York Times Book Review: The 10 Best Books of 2015

Inside The New York Times Book Review: The 10 Best Books of 2015

This week, editors at the Book Review discuss the year’s best books; Alexandra Alter has news from the literary world; Matthew Schneier discusses facial hair and a treatise on men’s style; Bee Wilson ...

4 Dec 201558min

Inside The New York Times Book Review: ‘Dark Matter and the Dinosaurs’

Inside The New York Times Book Review: ‘Dark Matter and the Dinosaurs’

This week, Lisa Randall talks about “Dark Matter and the Dinosaurs”; Alexandra Alter has news from the publishing world; Louisa Lim discusses five new memoirs about fleeing North Korea; and John Willi...

27 Nov 201540min

Inside The New York Times Book Review: David Hare’s Memoir

Inside The New York Times Book Review: David Hare’s Memoir

This week, David Hare discusses “The Blue Touch Paper”; Alexandra Alter has news from the publishing world; Sarah Vowell talks about “Lafayette in the Somewhat United States”; and Gregory Cowles has b...

20 Nov 201540min

Inside The New York Times Book Review: The Life of George H. W. Bush

Inside The New York Times Book Review: The Life of George H. W. Bush

This week, Jon Meacham discusses his biography of the 41st president; Alexandra Alter has news from the publishing world; Dan Ephron talks about “Killing a King”; and Gregory Cowles has best-seller ne...

13 Nov 201544min

Inside The New York Times Book Review: Putin’s Reign

Inside The New York Times Book Review: Putin’s Reign

This week, Steven Lee Myers talks about “The New Tsar”; Alexandra Alter has news from the publishing world; Amy Ellis Nutt discusses “Becoming Nicole”; Maria Russo talks about the season in children’s...

6 Nov 201550min

Populärt inom Fritid

somna-med-henrik
uggla-ugglas-podcast
man-i-grupp
roda-vita-rosen
rss-livsreglerna
svenska-fpl-podden
travpodden
rss-max-tant-med-max-villman
rss-horrujeje
spokhistorier
elbilsveckan
avsuttet-med-elsa-johanna
bilar-med-sladd
rss-speljuntan
sexet
tp-podden
rss-odla
kontrollbehov
rss-vara-klassiker
skillnadens-av-sara-backmo