In Conversation With The Rosenbach: Amit Chaudhuri

Description

Amit Chaudhuri is the author of Friend of My Youth, a novel. Books will be available for purchase from Shakespeare & Co., Booksellers. The author will sign copies after the program.

In Friend of My Youth, novelist Amit Chaudhuri visits his childhood home of Bombay. The city, reeling from the impact of the 2008 terrorist attacks, weighs heavily on his mind, as does the unexpected absence of his childhood friend Ramu, a drifting, opaque figure who is Amit’s last remaining connection to the city he once called home.

Amit Chaudhuri’s new novel is about geographical, historical and personal change. It asks a question we all grapple with in our lives: what does it mean to exist in both the past and the present? It is a striking reminder that, as the Guardian has said, “Chaudhuri has been pushing away at form, trying to make something new of the novel.”

About the Author

Amit Chaudhuri is a professor of contemporary literature at the University of East Anglia. He has written seven novels, including A Strange and Sublime Address and Afternoon Raag. His major works of nonfiction include Calcutta: Two Years in the City; Telling Tales; and Clearing Space. He is also the author of a book of short stories, Real Time, a book of poems, St. Cyril Road and Other Poems, and is the editor of the Picador Book of Modern Indian Literature.

Praise

With the publication of Friend of My Youth, Amit Chaudhuri is now the author of seven novels, greatly admired, especially by his peers… the drama of the self, spun from Chaudhuri’s meditations and recollections, is artfully composed and utterly absorbing.
— Kate Webb, Times Literary Supplement

What [Chaudhuri’s] work exemplifies is somebody who views the canon as everything, that there isn’t a form of canonical literature that makes him cleave to one culture or the other.
— Will Self

Join the Conversation

A series of informal, intimate talks given by literary and cultural luminaries, In Conversation With The Rosenbach delves into fascinating histories, intellectual curiosities, and inspiring ideas. Each program offers audience members a chance to join the conversation after the talk and share their own thoughts and questions. In Conversation With The Rosenbach is supported by a grant from the Christian R. & Mary F. Lindback Foundation.

Seating is limited; advance registration is strongly recommended.