Alberto Manguel
(Argentina, 1948) is a writer of non-fiction, a journalist and a bibliophile. He obtained international renown with Diary of a Reader, A History of Reading and The Library at Night. Manguel spent his early childhood in Tel Aviv where his father was ambassador. He spoke German and English there and only learnt Spanish on his return to Argentina at the age of seven. Nine years later the blind writer Jorge Luis Borges asked him to read for him and so he developed his great love for literature. Meanwhile he has collected over 30,000 books. Right before the Dirty War he left for Europe where he started a major oeuvre on world literature. He exchanged Europe for Canada and in 2000 together with his books moved to Poitou-Charentes in France. He won numerous prizes for his work, the prestigious French Prix Médicis, among others. www.alberto.manguel.com
Past events
VPRO De Avonden Live: Alberto Manguel
Interview with the famous Argentinian writer for the VPRO radio programme De Avonden Live. In English.
Forget it!
Writers commenting on the black pages in their country’s history. Hanaan as-Sjaykh wrote about the civil war in Lebanon, Alberto Manguel did the same about the dirty war in Argentina while Hans Goedkoop shed a new light on the Dutch East Indies of the police actions in the late 1940s. David Van Reybrouck talks to them. Musical intermezzo: Ngwatilo Mawiyoo accompanied by Serigne Gueye and Mark Tuinstra. In English
