![]() ![]() His prose conveys a sense of joy, even when it pries into darker corners of human nature. ![]() In The Imposters and in his other novels, including the 2010 Rome newspaper ensemble The Imperfectionists, he writes with generous gallows humor about deeply flawed people trying to make sense of their surroundings, often through the written word. It’s hard not to think there will always be a place for the Rachmans of the literary world. Storytelling itself is still vitally important in so many different forms, but there are endless different competing entertainments and distractions and diversions and cultural flare-ups that mean it’s going to be harder than ever to get people to really pay attention.” ![]() “I sit at my desk isolated from the world, but obsessing about the world, thinking about all the people out there and trying to capture something of it to say. Speaking via Zoom from his home in London, Rachman, a 48-year-old journalist turned novelist with a vast store of imagination and empathy, says it all comes back to storytelling-even as he often finds himself wondering if anyone out there is listening. ![]() Rachman breathes life into Dora Frenhofer, a lonely 73-year-old Dutch novelist, who then breathes life into her characters, who are themselves all writers-of poetry, of stand-up comedy routines, of fabricated news stories and restaurant reviews and sports articles. Reading Tom Rachman’s new novel The Imposters (Little, Brown, June) is like witnessing a high-wire alchemy act. ![]()
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