When the Doves Disappeared
When the Doves Disappeared (Kun kyyhkeset katosivat, 2012; tr. from the Finnish by Lola Rogers, 2015) is a smart-paced, suspenseful novel that explores the life defining consequences of choosing loyalty over betrayal, authenticity over self-preservation.
A LIFE IN WRITING
For a Finnish writer to be translated into English is an unusual event; over the last decade, only 40 or 50 Finnish novels have appeared in the US and UK – a “strange” state of affairs, according to Sofi Oksanen. But Oksanen isn’t merely a Finnish writer who has broken through. The author of Purge (2008), which sold over a million copies, is an international publishing sensation, frequently likened to Stieg Larsson. Only one Finnish author outsells her, Oksanen jokes: the late Tove Jansson, creator of the lovable, bohemian Moomin family.
‘One day, I was summoned to a pub near the Royal Court theatre where Samuel Beckett was looking at my work. “These are wonderful pictures,” he said’
Iknew Samuel Beckett’s reputation. He didn’t like photographers. He didn’t want them around really. It’s hard to believe I took so many photographs of him. During the 1970s, I photographed him and his rehearsals at the Royal Court theatre in London, and eventually did a book with his biographer James Knowlson called Images of Beckett. In 2015 my photographs of him and his plays were projected on to the chapel of King’s College Cambridge as part of its 500th anniversary celebrations. It’s been a long, unexpected association.
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| Truman Capote |
Want to get stuck in to the work of the Breakfast at Tiffany’s author? Here are some good ways in
Sam Moore
Monday 30 September 2024
Today marks 100 years since the birth of Truman Capote, the author of quietly devastating novels, charming short stories, and pioneering works of creative nonfiction. Though known primarily for one novella – Breakfast at Tiffany’s – as well as his colourful personal life – earlier this year Ryan Murphy’s film Feud: Capote vs the Swans explored the fallout when the writer and bon vivant betrayed his friendship group of Manhattan socialites – there are plenty of ways to better understand Capote as a man, a myth and a writer. Here are some good places to begin.
From the eternally enthralling tale of Dracula, to femmes fatales spooking in the name of feminine sexuality, horror author Lauren Owen selects her favourite vampiric tales
The vampire is naturally versatile: as a literary figure, it has taken on many forms, adapting for new generations and successfully making the jump into film, television, and comics. Modern readers can now find vampires in every conceivable genre, from paranormal romance to gritty horror, from contemporary humour to historical pastiche. But the vampire is also versatile in what it signifies. Dracula, of course, is the prime example – it can be read as a story of sexual transgression, invasion fears, resentment of women’s increased freedom, repressed homoeroticism – with many other interpretations besides.
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| Gary Oldman as Dracula |
Thirty years before Megalopolis, there was Coppola’s other deranged, maximalist fable about love lost, starring Gary Oldman as the terrifying Count
Andrew Fraser
Tuesday 19 November 2024
THEATRE | Dracula
The Untold Story at Leeds Playhouse
The Italian star is having a late career renaissance, including a powerful turn in acclaimed Vatican thriller Conclave. She talks about the serenity of being single, enjoying farming in later life – and what it means to be a nepo baby
Most great female actors get to play a nun at some point in their career: a kind of thespian rite of passage that comes to many in their grande dame years. Isabella Rossellini, however, checked off that box in her very first screen appearance, aged 24: in 1976’s little-remembered Vincente Minnelli musical A Matter of Time, in a bit part opposite her mother, screen legend and three-time Oscar winner Ingrid Bergman.
Isabella Rossellini is a busy woman. It is hard to know how the model, actor, writer, animal behaviourist and farmer finds so much time to talk about sex. But she does. In recent years, she has made numerous tiny films about the sex lives of animals under the umbrella titles Green Porno and Seduce Me. Now she hopes to take them to a larger audience – or, to be more accurate, she hopes to bring a larger audience to her farm.
