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PEOPLE & ARTS Saturday 17 November 2018
Sigrid Nunez's novel "The Friend" wins National Book Award

BY HILLEL ITALIE kley, author of the story
Associated Press collection "A Lucky Man,"
NEW YORK (AP) — Sig- told The Associated Press
rid Nunez's "The Friend," a earlier Wednesday that
meditative novel about "Our lives vibrate with un-
grief, books and, not least, certainty and mystery, with
a Great Dane named paths precariously taken
Apollo, has won the Nation- or not taken, and they are
al Book Award for fiction. often under threat by one
Other winners Wednesday thing or another. Many of
night included Jeffrey C. our lives are under threat
Stewart's "The New Negro: by design." Lauren Groff,
The Life of Alain Locke" for a nominee for the story
nonfiction and Justin Philip collection "Florida," said
Reed's "Indecency for po- that "In these frightening
etry. and fraught times, I had to
During a ceremony and come into the full certainty
dinner benefit at Cipriani that art was meaningful
Wall Street when those hon- enough for me to devote
ored had roots throughout my heart to it."
the world, from Peru to Ja- "Parks and Recreation" ac-
pan, Elizabeth Acevedo's tor Nick Offerman served
"The Poet X" won for young as master of ceremonies
people's literature, and and soon learned that
Yoko Tawada's "The Emis- among the publishing com-
sary," translated by Marga- munity you're more likely to
ret Mitsutani, won for trans- Isabel Allende attends the 69th National Book Awards Ceremony and Benefit Dinner at Cipriani get cheers with tributes to
lation, a category newly Wall Street on Wednesday, Nov. 14, 2018, in New York. Associated Press reading than with double
revived. entendre about "thumb
Nunez's book tells of a wom- Last of Her Kind," noted in own room," she said. "How world." drives."
an mourning the death of her acceptance speech lucky to have discovered Nunez's novel was cho- One popular line: "In an
her literary mentor and of that she didn't seek com- that writing books made sen from among five fic- age when our First Amend-
her bond with the dog he munity when she became the miraculous possible, to tion works set mostly in ment rights and truth it-
left behind. It is a story, in a writer, but unexpectedly be removed from the world the present, and touching self are very much in peril,
part, of connection and found it. and be part of the world at with lyricism and intensity books remain the ultimate
distance. And Nunez, au- "I thought it was something the same time. upon everything from race repository of creative
thor of such previous novels I could do alone and hid- "And tonight how happy and sexuality to climate ideas and irreplaceable
as "Salvation City" and "The den, in the privacy of my I am to feel a part of the change. Finalist Jamel Brin- knowledge."q

Kurtag's first-ever opera makes long-awaited world debut

By COLLEEN BARRY examines the interactions
Associated Press of four people, three of
MILAN (AP) — Hungarian them invalids, who grapple
composer Gyorgy Kurtag's with solitude even as they
long-awaited, first-ever share a cramped space.
opera was hailed as "as- The composer told report-
tonishing" and "a master- ers in Budapest last month
piece" as it made its debut that to adapt the text, he
Thursday at the famed La "chose little scenes from it,"
Scala opera house, win- working from the volume
ning eight minutes of ap- he bought more than 60
plause. years ago in Paris.
Hungarian Prime Minister La Scala's general man-
Viktor Orban was in the ager, Alexander Pereira,
royal box for premiere of had been waiting since
"Fin de Partie," which is his days at the Zurich Op-
based on the play by Sam- era House and then the
uel Beckett. "This is the first Salzburg Festival to stage
time that a Hungarian op- Kurtag's operatic debut.
era is being premiered at "Fin de Partie" was on more
the Scala," Orban said in than one La Scala calen-
a message on Facebook. dar before it finally mate-
"This is where we need to In this photo taken on Nov. 11, 2018 Leigh Melrose, left, and Frode Olsen perform during rehearsals rialized.
be. This is the most impor- of Gyoergy Kurtag's opera 'Fin de Partie' at the Milan La Scala opera house, Italy. Backstage, Pereira said it
tant event for Hungarians Associated Press was the most important
today." "Astonishing," Or- Considered by many to be the musical score for "Fin Kurtag saw the Paris debut opera in the last 30 years,
ban commented to re- the greatest living com- de Partie," putting to music of Beckett's "Fin de Partie" likening it to works by Ben-
porters as he left the the- poser, Kurtag, 92, spent about two-thirds of Beck- in 1957 and he spent years jamin Britten. "It's a master-
ater. nearly eight years writing ett's original text. studying the play, which piece," he said.q