NEVER MISS AN ISSUE!

Sign up to receive our monthly newsletter.

  • This field is hidden when viewing the form
  • This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.
1914-Goodbye to All That: Writers on the Conflict Between Life and Art

ABOUT THIS BOOK

PUBLISHER: Pushkin Press

FORMAT: Electronic book text

ISBN: 9781782271208

RRP: £6.99

PUBLICATION DATE:
July 31, 2014

BUY THIS BOOK

As an Amazon Associate and Bookshop.org affiliate we earn from qualifying purchases.

1914-Goodbye to All That: Writers on the Conflict Between Life and Art

Lavinia Greenlaw

Jeanette Winterson

Kamila Shamsie

Daniel Kehlmann

Drawing inspiration from the title of Robert Graves’s “bitter leave-taking of England”, 1914-Goodbye to All That tries to address some of the issues raised in that work: how to live, how to live with each other, and how to write. Lavinia Greenlaw has invited leading writers from some of the countries involved in the First World War to consider the loss of literary innocence and questions of artistic freedom. In the context of the centenary of the beginning of a conflict that changed the world, each writer has written an essay of around 3,000 words. The results are inventive, forthright and playful. Contributors include: Ali Smith – Scotland Ales Steger – Slovenia Jeanette Winterson – England Elif Shafak – Turkey NoViolet Bulawayo – Zimbabwe Colm Toibin – Ireland Xiaolu Guo – China Erwin Mortier – Belgium Alessandro Baricco – Italy Kamila Shamsie – Pakistan Daniel Kehlmann – Germany

Share this

Lavinia Greenlaw

Lavinia Greenlaw’s poetry includes The Casual Perfect and A Double Sorrow: Troilus and Criseyde. Other works include The Importance of Music to Girls and Questions of Travel: William Morris in Iceland. She was the first artist-in-residence at the Science Museum, and received the Ted Hughes Award for her sound work Audio Obscura. Her work for BBC radio includes documentaries about Elizabeth Bishop, Emily Dickinson, the darkest place in England and Arctic light. Ali Smith is an award-winning novelist and short story writer. Her novels include The Accidental, There but for the and, most recently, How to Be Both, winner of the 2014 Costa Novel Award. She was born in Scotland and now lives in Cambridge. Erwin Mortier (1965) made his mark in 1999 with his debut novel Marcel, which was awarded several prizes in Belgium and the Netherlands, and received acclaim throughout Europe. In the following years he quickly built up a reputation as of one the leading authors of his generation. His novel While the Gods were Sleeping received the AKO Literature Prize, one of the most prestigious awards in the Netherlands. His latest work, Stammered Song Book, a mother’s book of hours,’ a raw yet tender elegy about illness and loss, was met with unanimous praise. Mortier’s evocative descriptions bring past worlds brilliantly to life.