Last word is with Hanif Kureishi

 
17 December 2013

Many have remarked on the spooky similarity of Hanif Kureishi’s new novel The Last Word, out in February, about a young writer setting out to write a biography of an Indian-born writer and that of VS Naipaul and his biographer Patrick French. When I asked Kureishi if it was a roman à clef this summer he told me “ha ha”. Now he is proving more expansive, “You have to inhabit an idea yourself,” Kureishi tells The Bookseller.

“Writing a book or a film takes a long time so you really have to feel it is life or death for you. I just wanted a situation where I could think about women and writing and sex and race — all the things I have been thinking about my whole life. This set-up is an excuse to write the book I needed to write because you can explore certain things.”

I preferred his “ha ha” response.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in