By the Book: World Book Day 2020

Travel may not be a luxury that we have right now, but to celebrate World Book and Copyright Day this year, we thought we’d take the idea literally - and travel the world through books. We look at books from various countries in the world, and how they offer us a glimpse into what life might be like in a different place and culture - as well who gets to “present” a particular country in literature. Books discussed include: Life & Death in Shanghai (China), The Quiet American (Vietnam), Funny Boy (Sri Lanka), Persepolis (Iran), The Year of the Hare (Finland), Kitchen (Japan), and the writings of Stephen King and Zadie Smith. In Footnotes, we talk about made-up worlds instead, specifically the worldbuilding capabilities of J.R.R. Tolkien and Isaac Asimov.