Author Biography | Interview | Books by this Author | Readalikes
Claire Messud’s first novel, When the World Was Steady, and her book of novellas, The Hunters, were finalists for the PEN/Faulkner Award; her second novel, The Last Life, was a Publishers Weekly Best Book of the Year and an Editor’s Choice at The Village Voice. All three books were New York Times Notable Books of the Year. She has been awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship and a Radcliffe Fellowship, and is the current recipient of the Strauss Living Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. She lives in Somerville, Massachusetts, with her husband and children.
About This Biography
This biography was last updated on 03/26/2016. We try to keep BookBrowse's biographies both up to date and accurate, but with over 2500 lives to keep track of it's inevitable that some won't be as current or as complete as we would like. So, please help us - if the information about a particular author is out of date, inaccurate or simply very short, and you know of a more complete source, please let us know. Authors and those connected with authors:
If you wish to make changes to your bio, send your complete biography as you would like it displayed so that we can replace the old with the new.
Claire Messud discusses The Emperor's Children
Q: In The Emperor's Children, the introduction of a few outsiders into the
world of the main characters drastically alters the lives of everyone. What were
their lives like before the appearance of Bootie and Ludovic Seeley on the
scene?
Well, Marina had been living at home for the better part of a year, trying to
get her book finished; and Julius and Danielle were living pretty much as they
had done for some time, each in their apartment. But the three of them spent a
lot of time together – more time than they do once the book is underway -- in
the way very close, old friends do when they are single and childless.
Q: The first chapter is called "Our Chef is Very Famous in London", which
gets to the heart of things that a reputation one place may not carry to
another. What made you decide to start the book with that?
Danielle – like Marina and Julius also, albeit in slightly different ways –
is very much a New Yorker. Her whole sense of the world, post-college, has been
focused entirely on New York. I wanted to begin the novel in a rare moment, for
her, in which she has some perspective on her own life, some sense of its
...
Chloe Aridjis was born in New York and grew up in the Netherlands and Mexico. She received her PhD in nineteenth-century French poetry and magic shows from Oxford, then lived in Berlin for five years. Her first novel, Book of... (more)
If you enjoyed:
The Woman Upstairs
Try:
Asunder
by Chloe Aridjis
Growing up, T. Coraghessan Boyle did not aspire to be a writer. He attended State University of New York as a music student but ended up as a history and English major. He says, "I went there to be a music major but ... (more)
If you enjoyed:
The Emperor's Children
Try:
Drop City
by T.C. Boyle
We recommend 24 similar authors
The Tea Planter's Wife
by Dinah Jefferies
An utterly engrossing, compulsive page-turner set in 1920s Ceylon.
Darling Days
by iO Tillett Wright
A devastatingly powerful memoir of one young woman's extraordinary coming of age.
An irresistible love story for fans of Beautiful Ruins and Where'd You Go, Bernadette?
About the book
Blood at the Root
"A gripping, timely, and important examination of American racism."
- PW Starred Review
Visitors can view some of BookBrowse for free. Full access is for members only.
Your guide toexceptional books
BookBrowse seeks out and recommends books that we believe to be best in class. Books that will whisk you to faraway places and times, that will expand your mind and challenge you -- the kinds of books you just can't wait to tell your friends about.
Subscribe to receive some of our best reviews, "beyond the book" articles, book club info & giveaways by email.
