Is Helen DeWitt the literary messiah we’ve been waiting for?
One, DeWitt, is a mid-career novelist who despairs at the signs the world has moved on from the novel. She is a language whiz who advocates for the presence of Arabic in a culture that promises war on terror but cannot deliver a pluralist peace. She emails Ilya Grideff, the novel’s real-life Australian co-author, who writes back to her with meditations on the role of story in the digital age.
- ▪One, DeWitt, is a mid-career novelist who despairs at the signs the world has moved on from the novel.
- ▪She is a language whiz who advocates for the presence of Arabic in a culture that promises war on terror but cannot deliver a pluralist peace.
- ▪She emails Ilya Grideff, the novel’s real-life Australian co-author, who writes back to her with meditations on the role of story in the digital age.
Sydney Morning Herald publishes from Australia and files mainly under world. We currently carry 3,102 of its stories.
Opening excerpt (first ~120 words) tap to expand
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Excerpt limited to ~120 words for fair-use compliance. The full article is at The Sydney Morning Herald.