Adam Kirsch

discusses

The Global Novel:
Writing the World in the 21st Century

This event includes a book signing

Date

May
11
Thursday
May 11, 2017
7:00 PM ET

Location

Harvard Book Store
1256 Massachusetts Ave., Cambridge, MA 02138

Tickets

This event is free; no tickets are required.

Harvard Book Store welcomes poet and literary critic ADAM KIRSCH, author of The People and the Books: 18 Classics of Jewish Literature, for a discussion of his latest book, The Global Novel: Writing the World in the 21st Century.

About The Global Novel

What will 21st century fiction look like?

Acclaimed literary critic Adam Kirsch examines some of our most beloved writers, including Haruki Murakami, Elena Ferrante, Roberto Bolano, and Margaret Atwood, to better understand literature in the age of globalization.

The global novel, he finds, is not so much a genre as a way of imagining the world, one that allows the novel to address both urgent contemporary concerns—climate change, genetic engineering, and immigration—along with timeless themes, such as morality, society, and human relationships. Whether its stories take place on the scale of the species or the small town, the global novel situates its characters against the widest background of the imagination. The way we live now demands nothing less than the global perspective our best novelists have to offer.

Praise

"A critical appreciation of 'world literature,' highlighting works that combine specifics of locality with global reach. . . . Kirsch is shrewd on what he terms 'a new genre of English-language fiction . . . call it migrant literature,' which is less about an immigrant's arrival than a transitional passage, one that reinforces the notion of globalization in novels whose cultural roots are tougher to untangle. An insightful addition to the Columbia Global Reports roster." —Kirkus

Adam Kirsch
Adam Kirsch

Adam Kirsch

Adam Kirsch is an award-winning poet and critic. He is the author of three books of poetry and several books of criticism and biography, including most recently The People and the Books: 18 Classics of Jewish Literature. His essays and reviews appear regularly in The New Yorker, The New York Review of Books, Tablet, and other publications. He is the director of the M.A. program in Jewish Studies at Columbia University and lives in New York City.

Harvard Book Store
1256 Massachusetts Ave., Cambridge, MA 02138

Walking from the Harvard Square T station: 2 minutes

As you exit the station, reverse your direction and walk east along Mass. Ave. in front of the Cambridge Savings Bank. Cross Dunster St. and proceed along Mass. Ave for three more blocks. You will pass Au Bon Pain, JP Licks, and TD Bank. Harvard Book Store is located at the corner of Mass. Ave. and Plympton St.

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