Russell Banks, an award-winning fiction writer who rooted such novels as “Affliction” and “The Sweet Hereafter” in the wintry, rural communities of his native north-east has died. He was 82. We were fortunate to speak with Banks many times about his work - most recently in 2021 when his novel "Foregone" was released. We re-share interview today, in memoriam.
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Russell Banks, twice a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize, joins us this week to discuss his new novel, “Foregone.” In the novel we meet Canadian-American leftist documentary filmmaker Leonard Fife, one of sixty thousand draft evaders and deserters who fled to Canada to avoid serving in Vietnam.
Fife, now in his late seventies, is dying of cancer in Montreal and has agreed to a final interview in which he is determined to bare all his secrets at last, to demythologize his mythologized life.
This show was recorded as part of a virtual author event with Northshire Bookstore.
