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Books and Authors

Open Book: David Baddiel & Naomi Alderman and Jim Crace

Books and Authors

BBC

Society & Culture, Books

4.2824 Ratings

🗓️ 17 February 2013

⏱️ 28 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Mariella Frostrup discusses what defines a Jewish novel with stand up comedian, tv presenter & novelist David Baddiel and writer & broadaster Naomi Alderman, as Jewish Book week begins in London. Jim Crace talks about his new novel Harvest, which will also be his last as he has announced he is retiring as a novelist. And Indian writer Amit Chaudhuri explains why, after setting three novels in his native Calcutta, he has turned to non-fiction in his new account of the city.

Transcript

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0:00.0

Hi, it's Nicola Cochlin. Young people have been making history for years, but we don't often hear about them. My brand new series on BBC Sounds sets out to put this right. In history's youngest heroes, I'll be revealing the fascinating stories of 12 young people who've played a major role in history and who've helped shape our world. Like Audrey Hepburn, Nelson Mandela, Louis Braille and Lady Jane Grey,

0:24.7

history's youngest heroes with me, Nicola Cochlin.

0:27.8

Listen on BBC Sounds.

0:30.5

This is a download from the BBC.

0:32.1

To find out more, visit BBC.co.uk slash radio four.

0:41.2

Hello on today's program, David Bediel and Naomi Alderman on what makes a Jewish novel.

0:43.6

Amit Chadbury on Calcutta, India's forgotten city,

0:47.4

and Jim Cray swerves the retirement he announced three years ago on this show

0:51.3

and discusses his allegedly final novel, Harvest.

0:55.8

When Howard Jacobson's The Finkler Question won the Booker Prize in 2011,

1:00.7

it was declared that the comic novel had finally come of age.

1:03.8

But just as significant was the fact that a British novel about being Jewish was taking centre stage.

1:14.3

Julian Trezlov and Sam Finkler had been at school together.

1:19.5

More rivals than friends, but rivalry too can last a lifetime.

1:25.4

Finkler was the cleverer. Samuel, he insisted on being called then.

1:27.7

My name's Samuel, not Sam.

1:30.1

Sam's a private investigator's name.

1:31.9

Samuel was a prophet.

1:38.3

Before he met Finkler, Trezlov had never met a Jew, not knowingly at least.

1:47.1

He supposed a Jew would be like the word Jew, small and dark and beetling, a secret person.

1:51.5

Howard Jacobson, reading his own novel The Finkler Question.

1:56.7

On the eve of London's Jewish Book Week, we've invited two of our finest novelists to discuss the definition of a Jewish novel, from the preeminence of great American icons like Philip Roth and Saul Bello,

...

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