Language and finding home. Xiaolu Guo: A Lover's Discourse

From Nine To Noon, 10:07 am on 18 September 2020
No caption

Photo: XIAOLU GUO

Award-winning Chinese-born British author, filmmaker and Booker Prize judge Xiaolu Guo tells Kathryn Ryan about her new book A Lover's Discourse

A 'documentary novel' about love, language, and the meaning of home, A Lover's Discourse is set in Brexit Britain, told through fragments of conversations between two un-named lovers. 

It's a tale of the challenges of learning a new language and living in a new culture. Xiaolu largely taught herself English and self translated when she began writing in English. 

Literary magazine Granta included Xiaolu Guo in its once-a-decade list of the twenty most promising young British novelists, and today she is writer-in-residence at City University of New York.