LISTEN online HERE— iTunes podcast HERE
The US is only the most recent power to invade Afghanistan —and fail. Of course the Soviets tried it from 1979 to 1989, and before that, the British tried – from 1839 to 1842. Is there a lesson here? WILLIAM DALRYMPLE thinks so—he’s written about the British effort, and its striking parallels to our own: RETURN OF A KING: the Battle for Afghanistan, 1839-42—it’s out now in paperback.
Also: The Irish novelist John Banville writes thrillers under the pen name Benjamin Black. His new one, set in LA in 1950, is The Black-Eyed Blonde: A Philip Marlowe Novel.
Plus: Edmund White, a member of the Stonewall generation, is the author of several award-winning memoirs and novels, including A Boy’s Own Story and City Boy. His new memoir is Inside a Pearl: My Years in Paris. “White is one of the most prominent gay writers in the United States, a position he occupies gleefully”–Jay Parini, New York Times.
