大象传媒

The best of the world's arts, film, music, literature and music brought to you every day. Presented by Harriett Gilbert.

Michael Thomas
We talk to the American author, winner of this year's International Impac Dublin Literary Award. The prize was awarded for his debut novel Man Gone Down, a timely book, which challenges the notion that race is no longer an issue in the United States.

Comic Superheroes - The 99
We speak to the creator of The 99 - a popular Kuwaiti comic based on the 99 attributes of Allah that has just signed a deal with DC comics in the US.

Frank McCourt
Last weekend the author Frank McCourt, whose first and best-known book was his Pulitzer Prize winning memoir Angela's Ashes, died in his adopted city of New York. From the World Service's arts and culture archive, we hear from Frank McCourt himself speaking to Harriett Gilbert about his literary success.

Jun Markl
Half German, half Japanese Conductor Jun Markl talks to The Strand about the ideas behind his cross cultural programme for his forthcoming 大象传媒 Proms concert.

Ebooks
With a Chinese IT group announcing last week that they have produced a version of the Amazon Kindle - the Strand explores the future of publishing and asks what writers themselves think of the e-book.

Farahad Zuma's novel The Many Conditions of Love is published by Little Brown.
Roma Tearne's novel Brixton Beach is published by Harper Press.
Lesley Lokko's novel Rich Girl Poor Girl is published by Orion.

Skin
We review Skin - the new award-winning South African movie starring Sophie Okenedo and Sam Neill. The film tells the true story of Sandra Laing who was born in Piet Retief, a small conservative town in apartheid South Africa. She was remarkable for the fact that she was a child born to white parents but having a mixed race appearance herself. From the age of 10 she was rejected by the white society and embarked on a lifelong search to understand her place in South African society. The newspaper columnist Hannah Pool, who is Eritrean by birth but adopted by white British parents, comes into the studio to review it for us.

Radhika Jha
The acclaimed author Radhika Jha discusses her new book, Lanterns On Their Horns, which chronicles life in an Indian village, the impact of Westernisation and its clashes with traditional rural society, and man's intimate relation to animals, in particular - the sacred cow.

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