Writing the Biography of a Genius: Extract from ‘Joseph Brodsky, A Literary Life’ by Lev Loseff
Joseph Brodsky: A Literary Life (out now in paperback) is an intimate, penetrating study of the great Russian poet’s life and work, written by his lifelong friend, the eminent Russian literary scholar Lev Loseff. In this extract from the book, Loseff outlines the challenges of a writing the biography of a ‘genius’ and a friend. … Read more
How Christianity came to Latin America: Extract from ‘New Worlds’ by John Lynch
With unsurpassed knowledge of Latin American history, John Lynch’s New Worlds: A Religious History of Latin America sets out to explore the reception of Christianity by native people and how it influenced their social and religious lives, from the Christian evangelists’ arrival in Latin America to the dictators of the late twentieth century. In this exclusive extract, Lynch … Read more
Survivors of the Gulag: Extract from ‘Gulag Voices’ by Anne Applebaum
Published last year to widespread acclaim, Gulag Voices by Pulitzer Prize-winner Anne Applebaum is a unique collection of writings from survivors of the Gulag, the Soviet concentration camps. In this extract from the book’s introduction, Applebaum provides an overview of the poignant, harrowing and inspirational accounts features in her anthology, and gives some essential context to this … Read more
Bucharest Spring: Extract from ‘The Black Envelope’ by Norman Manea (part 1)
The Black Envelope is a novel by Jewish Romanian novelist Norman Manea, and has recently been published in Yale’s pioneering Mergellos series of literature in translation. In the novel, a violent spring suddenly grips Bucharest in the 1980s after a brutal winter. In Part 1 of this exclusive extract, the pessimistic pensioner Mr Grafton sets out … Read more
Virginia Woolf’s Soho: Extract from ‘Nights Out’ by Judith Walkowitz
Judith Walkowitz, author of Nights Out, a new book on the history of Soho, discusses Virginia Woolf’s interactions with London’s sophisticated (and subversive) district. Extract from Nights Out by Judith Walkowitz Virginia Woolf loved Soho. In the early 1920s, her favorite urban itinerary brought her to this old, foreign quarter of central London, located to … Read more
