Hello, I'm James Wood, and this year on the LRB's Close Reading's podcast, I'm asking,

Who's Afraid of Realism? I'll be taking a range of great novels and short stories,

from Flobe's Madame Bovary and Dostoevsky's Notes from Underground, up to more recent works

by Amit Chowdhury and Gwendolyn Riley. And I'll be examining what makes and makes

for the real. How does realism produce its effects? What's the difference between artifice

and artificiality? And who is and has been afraid of realism and why? The series starts with

two episodes on Madame Bovary, which you can listen to right now.

And in the third episode, I'll be talking to Adam Thurlwell about Dostoevsky.

You can find a link in the description or search close readings wherever you get your podcasts.

Welcome to the LRB podcast. I'm your host, Adam Schatz. The subject of this week's episode is the U.S.

Israeli War Against Iran, Operation Epic Fury, which began on February 28, and is continuing with no

obvious end in sight. My guests on this episode are two seasoned analysts of Iran and the Middle

East. Robert Malley, who was on the

podcast recently to discuss his book about the failure of the peace process in Israel-Palestine,

tomorrow is yesterday, co-written with Hussein Aga, was a negotiator on the 2015 Iran nuclear

deal known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action.

Asfandiar Batman Gilege is the founder and CEO of the Bors and Bazaar Foundation,

a think tank focused on economic diplomacy, economic development, and economic justice in West Asia.

He's also an authority on the impact of

sanctions on the Iranian economy. Rob and Esfandiar, thank you for joining me. Thanks for having us.

Great to be here. Rob, I want to start with you in a New York Times op-ed op-ed, co-written with

Stephen Vertheim and entitled, Of Course Trump Bombed Iran, you write,

...