Motivated by the helplessness of his boyhood, he described the lives of vulnerable people in conflicts around the world and later his own terminal illness.
Tag: Writing and Writers
A Science Fiction Writer Wrestles With China’s Rise, and His Own Decline
In his stories, Han Song explores the disorientation accompanying China’s modernization, sometimes writing of unthinkable things that later came true.
How a Booker Prize-Winning Work From India Redefined Translation
An extraordinary author-translator collaboration produced a book, “Heart Lamp,” that was lauded for enriching the English language.
The Prize-Winning Novel Challenging ‘Ableist Machismo’ in Japan
Saou Ichikawa is the country’s first severely disabled author to win a top literary prize. Her novel “Hunchback” is an angry cry against “ableist machismo.”
Agatha Christie, Who Died in 1976, Will See You in Class
An avatar of the long-dead British novelist is “teaching” an online writing course. But do we want to learn from a digital prosthetic built by artificial intelligence?
A Push to Remove Symbols of Imperial Russia Divides Odesa, Ukraine
A push to rename streets and remove statues associated with imperial Russia is dividing Odesa, whose identity is tied up in its history.
Valentin-Yves Mudimbe, 83, Dies; African Scholar Challenged the West
He deconstructed what he called “the colonial library”: the accounts of Africa by Europeans whose aim, he said, was to further colonialism.
Overlooked Letter Rewrites History of Shakespeare’s Bad Marriage
New research undermines the traditional view that Shakespeare was a distant, neglectful husband to his wife, Anne.
Mario Vargas Llosa, Nobel-Winning Peruvian Novelist, Dies at 89
Mr. Vargas Llosa, who ran for Peru’s presidency in 1990 and won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2010, transformed episodes from his personal life into books that reverberated far beyond the borders of his native country.
Richard Bernstein Dies at 80; Times Correspondent, Critic and Author
He wrote from Europe and Asia, served as a book critic and produced a raft of books, on subjects ranging from the French condition to multiculturalism.