Max Porter talks about his highly acclaimed novel Lanny, which was nominated for the Booker Prize 2019, and recently released in paperback.

Max is one of the most exciting literary talents to emerge in recent years, with Lanny his follow-up novel to his 2015 debut, Grief Is the Thing with Feathers.

Lanny is the story of a family who've recently moved to the countryside and whose village is peopled by the living and the dead. Lanny is a young boy with a gift for friendship, who adores roaming free in the countryside, making art, leaving traces of enchantment in the closely woven lives around him.

Observing it all, and orchestrating a tapestry of village voices, is Dead Papa Toothwort, a sinister and mythological creature who has woken from his slumber and who follows the boy Lanny in his daily life, seeing him as a kind of kindred spirit. It is a novel full of ideas about the environment, art, village life, parenting, as well as the strangeness of every day life.

Presented by James Naughtie and including contributions and questions from an invited group of readers.

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Presenter: James Naughtie