Nathan Englander

Nathan Englander’s long-awaited new collection of short stories has recently been published: What We Talk About When We Talk About Anne Frank. We are very pleased to welcome him to BorderKitchen in early September.

In What We Talk About When We Talk About Anne Frank, Nathan Englander dissects the human soul in eight stories. In the title story, for example, the marriages of two Jewish couples are examined, and the Holocaust is reduced to a parlour game: “Would you, if there were another Holocaust and you were not Jewish, let me hide with you?” It is a homage to Raymond Carver’s famous short story What We Talk About When We Talk About Love, in which two couples drink gin and talk about love. Restraints fall away, the atmosphere becomes increasingly tense, and ultimately at least one of them is left irreparably exposed in their vulnerability.

In Englander’s version, the conversation also revolves around religion and ethnic identity, alongside love and family ties, all central ingredients in the major existential questions people struggle with. In this collection, those questions are masterfully explored by Englander.

Nathan Englander (1970) was born in New York and lived for many years in Jerusalem. He made his debut in 1999 with the short story collection For the Relief of Unbearable Urges, followed in 2007 by the novel The Ministry of Special Cases. What We Talk About When We Talk About Anne Frank is only his third book, and has been received with great enthusiasm by both critics and fellow writers.

Nathan Englander will be interviewed at BorderKitchen by author and journalist Arjan Visser.

Location: Weimarstraat 36, The Hague
Start time: 8:00 PM
Tickets: €5.00
Reservations: 070-3462355 (Mon–Fri) or info@borderkitchen.nl

Reviews:
“In Nathan Englander’s new, superb collection of stories, experimentation and breadth of vision prevail, with consistently surprising effect.” – Vrij Nederland

“A masterful collection from beginning to end.” – Het Parool

“Imagine: two couples talking about Anne Frank, and afterwards something is irreparably broken. That such a thing can happen, with nothing but words.” – NRC Handelsblad

“It takes an exceptional combination of moral humility and moral assurance to integrate fine-grained comedy and large-scale tragedy as daringly as Nathan Englander does. His writing is liberal in every good sense of the word.” – Jonathan Franzen