Forrest Gander's "Mojave Ghost"

LARB Radio Hour

Kate Wolf and Eric Newman are joined by Pulitzer Prize-winning poet, novelist, and translator Forrest Gander to discuss his new book, Mojave Ghost. A long poem situated along the 800-mile length of the San Andreas Fault, which runs from Northern California where Gander lives to his birthplace in the Southern California Desert, the work reflects both exterior and interior landscapes with tender precision and heightened awareness. Gander moves through memory, grief, and fault lines— in the earth, our country, and himself. He confronts what it means to be a self that contains divisions born out of time, experience, and relationships to other people, both living and gone. Also, Simon Critchley, author of Mysticism, returns to recommend A Most Remarkable Creature by Jonathan Meiburg, and give a tip of the hat to Housekeeping by Marilynne Robinson.