John Freeman

Granta, the literary magazine, has had a long history of picking winners among young writers. Its first Best of Young British Novelists issue in 1983 eyed as up-and-comers Ian McEwan, Martin Amis, Kazuo Ishiguro and Julian Barnes.

Turning its focus on the United States, Granta launched a Best of Young American Novelists issue a decade ago. For its second list, to be published in April, Granta lowered the definition of "young" from 40 to 35, and netted a group that includes two writers who live in the same New York City apartment building.

Dara Horn, 30, is a scholar of Yiddish and Hebrew literature who is gaining recognition for her novels, "In the Image" and "The World to Come." Akhil Sharma, 35, who was born in India and raised in New Jersey, is a former investment banker whose debut novel "An Obedient Father" won critical plaudits.

Your novel "The World to Come" feels at times like an homage to Yiddish literature--which was destroyed or disappeared, its creators killed. Do you ever feel like you are writing into a void?

Dara Horn: Yeah, one thing I wanted to do with this book was correct an impression that people in this culture have sometimes about Yiddish writing. People know very little about Yiddish literature, Yiddish culture. And for good reason. Imagine if it's a thousand years in the future and no one speaks English any more. And there's only one book of English literature that anyone has ever heard of--scholars maybe know more--and that book is "Romeo and Juliet." But the only way people know of "Romeo and Juliet" is from a wildly popular movie adaptation. Only in the movie, Romeo and Juliet wind up getting married at the end of the movie.

I think it's very analogous to Yiddish literature today, since the only Yiddish literature anyone knows today are the stories by Shalom Aleichem, which people know from "Fiddler on the Roof." But his real work is very different from what you see on Broadway. For instance, in the real stories, Chava, married to a young Jewish man, is abandoned by her husband and forsaken by her family.

Did you grow up reading Yiddish literature?

DH: No, I learned Yiddish in college, but I grew up in a family that was very involved in the Jewish community, and I learned Hebrew as a child. In college I focused on a period of Hebrew literature, late nineteenth-century, early twentieth-century, which was when Hebrew started being revived as a spoken language. At that point, the revival of the language coincided with the revival of secular fiction written in Hebrew. What I started realizing is it's very hard to read. And it's hard to read because you can imagine how hard it is to write dialogue that sounds like someone is actually speaking in a language that nobody speaks. So they had to invent slang; the syntax was weird. And I gradually realized it was so hard to read because these writers were writing in Hebrew but they were thinking in Yiddish.

Who were the writers you read that made you want to write?

Akhil Sharma: I read a lot of Hemingway. I read a lot of science-fiction, mostly because I wanted to escape where I was from. Hemingway made it seem you can be a writer and go to France and Spain and have an exciting life.

What were your favorites?

AS: Well, I read a dozen books about him before I read his books. I copied his style. As a young writer it was very, very helpful. Most of it is set abroad - among boxers, around soldiers, very specialized environments. As a writer born in India, it was a good lesson, because I had to learn how to explain what a sari looks like to people who may never have seen one.

You recently retired from investment banking to write full time. How has that changed things for you?

AS: It's very different. I miss earning a living--my wife is a lawyer, and she supports us. I feel bad, though, a little like a mooch. Meanwhile, the person you are remains the same, but in the absence of work your interior life, and all its insecurities, grows enormously.

Your novel, "An Obedient Father," had a lot to do with secrets and lies and family life. How was it received back in India?

AS: My relatives in India were very angry. I was surprised. I mean, the book says on the cover these things aren't true. That these events are made up, and they were. None of that happened. I borrowed some of the places, and the stuff about the man's job is true. But the rest is made-up. But they kept thinking it was true. You have to remember, though, India is largely a shame-based culture, not a guilt-based culture. So a confessional narrative doesn't go over very well--not only does the man in my book do a horrible thing, he doesn't have the goodness to keep quiet about it.

Your novel feels like it came into existence fully conceived. How do you achieve that effect?

AS: I wait a lot. I pause and revise. I try to be honest--I try to be very, very honest. If something feels false, I'll wait years for the right image to come to me. There are other techniques, like putting the noun and the verb near the center of a sentence, but those other things are probably the most important.

(2007-04-03)

Also by John Freeman

Words on Pictures
Mamet, Lynch and Smiley
(2007-02-20)

Nonfiction Review
With James Frey facing Oprah's wrath, Harvard novelist Kaayva Viswanathan disgraced and nearly one-third of American college students cheating, many claimed we had an epidemic of plagiarism on our hands. Not so fast, says Richard Posner, a judge on the U.S. Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals
(2007-01-23)

Mumbai on the Make
I know what you're thinking. You took one look at that page count and thought: "Do we really need another epic novel about India? What about Salman Rushdie's `Midnight's Children' or Rohinton Mistry's `A Fine Balance?'" Great books create their necessity, though, and if you can lift this tremendous story into your shopping cart, bring it home and read it, you'll probably wonder how you got by so long without it
(2007-01-02)

Strange Feelings
The novel tells the story of a 27-year-old man who emerges from a car crash with a rare disorder called Capgras Syndrome. The man can recognize his loved ones but doesn't believe they are who they claim to be
(2006-12-22)

Palenstinian Consideration
(2006-12-19)

Thought Full Gifts
(2006-11-28)

Sky's the Limit
(2006-11-20)

POETRY REVIEW
(2006-10-24)

Without a Home
(2006-10-17)

NONFICTION REVIEW
(2006-10-10)

NONFICTION REVIEW
(2006-09-19)

FICTION REVIEW
(2006-08-29)

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