Arthur Japin

Brazos Book of the Month July 2010

The Imperfectionists by Tom Rachman

The Imperfectionists is about the quirky, maddening, endearing people who write and read an international newspaper based in Rome: from the obituary reporter who will do anything to avoid work, to the young freelancer who is manipulated by an egocentric war correspondent, to the dog-obsessed publisher who seems less interested in his struggling newspaper than in his magnificent basset hound, Schopenhauer.

For its staff, the true front-page stories are their own private lives. As this imperfect bunch stumbles along, the era of high terror and high tech bears down, the characters collide, and the novel hurtles toward its climax…

Click here for more information on the book.

Arthur Japin

Start: February 23, 2010 - 7:00pm

End: February 23, 2010 - 8:30pm

Arthur Japin is one of the Netherlands' best loved and best selling authors. On publication his historical novels The Two Hearts of Kwasi Boachi and In Lucia’s Eyes shot to the European bestseller lists and haven’t left them since. The Two Hearts of Kwasi Boachi was made into an opera by the British composer Jonathan Dove in 2007. Japin has won many major literary prizes, including the 2004 Libris Literary Prize for In Lucia’s Eyes. Both of these titles have been adapted as stage plays and are set to become major motion pictures. His work has been translated into more than twenty languages.

"Set in Cinecittà of the seventies, Japin's new novel, Director's Cut (Knopf) captures the affair between a beautiful young Dutch actress and a famous Italian director (a thinly fictionalized Federico Fellini), whose fading spotlight still has the power to enchant -- and ensnare. A former actor, Japin has brought a cinematic vibrancy to historical fiction....here, he draws from his own colorful past, conjuring the twilight of Hollywood on the Tiber to explore art's treacherous illusion: how a world projected on-screen can come to seem more real than anything held secretly in the heart."

From a review in Vogue, full review here.

Check out Arthur Japin's website (in English or Dutch).

Read author Ron Slate's review on his website, On the Seawall.

Location:

Brazos Bookstore
2421 Bissonnet St
Houston, Texas 77005-1451