Reading and writing the unwritable with Kader Abdolah – books podcast

We’re looking at challenging writing from both sides, with an author who has rewritten the Qur’an and a discussion about the difficult experience of reading Hanya Yanagihara’s novel A Little Life

On this week’s podcast, we’re talking taboos. We begin with the Dutch-Iranian novelist Kader Abdolah, who has written his own interpretation of the Qur’an in Dutch, changing the order of the text, cutting out repetition and even writing a death scene for Muhammad. He explores the difficulties of rewriting a holy book, and why he published his version alongside The Messenger, a novelisation of the prophet’s life.

The singer Emma Lee Moss – aka Emmy the Great – joins us to discuss how Hanya Yanagihara handled difficult subjects including child abuse, suicide and self harm in her Booker-shortlisted novel A Little Life – and how it still became a bestseller on both sides of the Atlantic.

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