Kunzru on Herzog and Haneke

In two separate pieces for the Guardian (one a couple of years old), one of my favourite novelists, Hari Kunzru, assesses the films of two of my favourite directors: Werner Herzog and Michael Haneke. Enjoy!

The novel

As those of you who frequent my brother's blog may have read, I'm writing my first novel. When I mention this to people, they're usually very interested at first and ask what it's about, but when I tell them their eyes glaze over and the conversation quickly moves on to other topics. So instead of giving you a synopsis I've decided to take a leaf out of Hari Kunzru's book and post a few photos.

Coming together

One of my favourite authors is Hari Kunzru (The Impressionist, Transmission, My Revolutions). In this article posted last month on his blog, he discusses the films of Michael Haneke.

Also, I see from William Boyd's official website that he has a new book out. In this recent interview he describes how he got the idea for the novel:

The idea for the novel started when I read that every year in London they take 60 bodies a year out of the Thames, usually at the bend in the river near Greenwich. That's more than one a week, but you never hear about them. And then I thought immediately about the opening scenes of Dickens's Our Mutual Friend and the body being pulled out of the river. And I figured out that there was a way of writing a novel in the way that Our Mutual Friend does, from the very top of society to the very bottom. It all began to come together.