The Granta Podcast

André Aciman reads from his new story, ‘Abingdon Square’, published this week in Granta 122: Betrayal, and speaks to Granta’s Yuka Igarashi about the story, the problem with unreliable narrators and modern poetry, and why self-deception and betrayal are good subjects for fiction. (Illustration by Tomer Hanuka)

The author of 'The Reluctant Fundamentalist', Mohsin Hamid, talks to John Freeman about the extract from his latest novel 'How to Get Filthy Rich in Rising Asia', extracted in the new issue of Granta, Betrayal.

Granta New Poet Sean Borodale discusses his debut collection Bee Journal, shortlisted for he TS Eliot prize, with online editor Ted Hodgkinson.

Robert Olen Butler reads his story 'Banyan' and talks to Ted Hodgkinson about how memory can be like compost and why every story is a search for an identity.

Michel Laub reads from his story in Best of Young Brazilian Novelists and discusses trespassing and fathers.

Best of Young Brazilian Novelist Vinicius Jatobá and his translator Jethro Soutar talk to online editor Ted Hodgkinson about the challenges of rendering a story described by Melanie Rae Thon as ‘mesmerizing, incantatory . . . an eighteen-page lyric poem, a single sentence spanning generations, a broken-open elegy vast enough to be a novel.’ They also discuss the role of China in the story and the peculiar and intimate bond between author and translator.

Best of Young Brazilian Novelist Vinicius Jatobá and his translator Jethro Soutar talk to online editor Ted Hodgkinson about the challenges of rendering a story described by Melanie Rae Thon as ‘mesmerizing, incantatory . . . an eighteen-page lyric poem, a single sentence spanning generations, a broken-open elegy vast enough to be a novel.’ They also discuss the role of China in the story and the peculiar and intimate bond between author and translator.

'Ordinary Light' is a selection of photographs which appears in the latest issue of Granta, Medicine, taken from Brad Feuerhelm's extensive collection. Including images from diverse periods of history which offer glimpses into overlooked moments of intimacy and sometimes, trauma. Here Brad spoke to online editor Ted Hodgkinson about the stories that lie behind his images from the issue and how his work is informed by his love of horror movies.

Tan Twan Eng is the author of The Gift of Rain and most recently, The Garden of Evening Mists, which is currently shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize. Set during the Japanese occupation, the novel tells the story of a young law graduate who seeks respite in the plantations of the Cameron Highlands, where she discovers Yugiri, the only Japanese garden in Malaya, and its secretive owner, Aritomo. Here Tan Twan Eng spoke to John Freeman about the of the art of shakkei or ‘Borrowed Scenery’ and being shortlisted for the Booker.

Jeet Thayil is the author of four collections of poetry. His debut novel,Narcopolis – was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize – tells of a group of outsiders caught up in an underworld of opiates, sex and violence in Bombay. Part biography of that city, the novel also takes a turn into China, which is another important chapter in the story of how opium shaped the landscape and the individual lives shrouded in its smoke. Here Jeet Thayil talked to online editor Ted Hodgkinson about being shortlisted for the Booker, the images of Christ woven into the novel and an unexpected digression on Bladerunner.

Alison Moore's debut novel The Lighthouse was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize 2012. It tells the story of a middle aged man named Futh who goes on a walking holiday in Germany, and there unexpectedly encounters his past. Here Moore spoke to John Freeman about the experience of being shortlisted, why her characters often find themselves enclosed in a memory and writing short.

Deborah Levy's novel Swimming Home was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize. Set in the South of France, it is the story of Joe, a poet who arrives with his family at their villa in Nice. There he discovers what he thinks is the body of a bear in the pool. On closer inspection he finds it is the body of Kitty Finch, still very much alive. Beautiful and unhinged, Kitty’s arrival sends ripples through the surface of already fraught family holiday, bringing each character to breaking point. Here Deborah Levy spoke to online editor Ted Hodgkinson about why as she wants to resist anything resembling a comfort zone and why writing fiction is about 'finding reasons to live'.

Deborah Levy's novel Swimming Home was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize. Set in the South of France, it is the story of Joe, a poet who arrives with his family at their villa in Nice. There he discovers what he thinks is the body of a bear in the pool. On closer inspection he finds it is the body of Kitty Finch, still very much alive. Beautiful and unhinged, Kitty’s arrival sends ripples through the surface of already fraught family holiday, bringing each character to breaking point. Here Deborah Levy spoke to online editor Ted Hodgkinson about why as she wants to resist anything resembling a comfort zone and why writing fiction is about 'finding reasons to live'.

D.T. Max's Every Love Story is a Ghost Short: A Life of David Foster Wallace charts the prodigious rise, numerous breakdowns and sad end of one of the foremost writers of his generation. Here Wallace's biographer talks about why ‘David always wanted to be one David', the solace he found in twelve-step programmes and what his use of wiper-fluid, on a car ride with Jonathan Franzen, reveals about his prose style.

Alison Moore's debut novel The Lighthouse was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize 2012. It tells the story of a middle aged man named Futh who goes on a walking holiday in Germany, and there unexpectedly encounters his past. Here Moore spoke to John Freeman about the experience of being shortlisted, why her characters often find themselves enclosed in a memory and writing short.