Granta editor John Freeman interviews the author about book piracy in Peru – the subject of Daniel Alarcón’s piece in Granta 109: Work.
Photograph © Claudia Alva
‘Granta editor John Freeman interviews Daniel Alarcón about book piracy in Peru.’
Granta editor John Freeman interviews the author about book piracy in Peru – the subject of Daniel Alarcón’s piece in Granta 109: Work.
Photograph © Claudia Alva
‘I think there should be a National Service of Hospitality. The best way to see the true face of humanity is to serve it a plate of chips.’
Camilla Grudova on bad-mannered customers.
‘Anyone who has ever worked night shifts will understand the vertiginous feeling that comes with staring down the day from the wrong end.’
A.K. Blakemore on working nights.
‘I was constantly reading job ads, trying to find my holy grail – a job I could stand to do, and someone foolish enough to hire me.’
Sandra Newman on learning how to play professional blackjack.
‘I loved being a receptionist. What I loved about it was playing the part of being a receptionist.’
Emily Berry on being a temporary office worker.
‘Every part of you would swell, including your eyeballs, and no matter how much water you drank, you were always dehydrated.’
Junot Díaz on working for a steel mill.
Daniel Alarcón was born in Lima, Peru in 1977 and raised in the southern United States. He is associate editor of Etiqueta Negra, a monthly magazine based in Lima. His novels include Lost City Radio and At Night We Walk in Circles, and his story collection, War by Candlelight, was a finalist for the 2006 Hemingway Foundation/PEN Award. He currently lives in Oakland, California, where he is the Distinguished Visiting Writer at Mills College.
More about the author →John Freeman is the founder of the literary annual Freeman's and an executive editor at Alfred A. Knopf. He is also the author and editor of eleven books, including Dictionary of the Undoing; There's a Revolution Outside, My Love (co-edited with Tracy K Smith), and Wind, Trees, a new collection of poems. His work has appeared in The New Yorker, The Paris Review, and been translated into more than twenty languages. Once a month he hosts The California Book Club, an online discussion of a classic book of golden state literature for Alta magazine. He lives in New York City.
More about the author →‘Being pirated is the Peruvian equivalent of making the bestseller list.’
‘With few exceptions, presidents do not comment on or even recognize an individual loss like this one; they operate on another scale, and there is no room within their discourse for something so small.’
‘It’s about the music of it. “It’s Hollywood,” Mario said, and assured me the same is true of political speech-making.’
‘The strangest parts of a story are not necessarily the fictional elements.’
In her series Observatoires, Noémie Goudal places stairs, pyramids and domes in natural, isolated, timeless spaces.
Granta magazine is run by the Granta Trust (charity number 1184638)
The copyright to all contents of this site is held either by Granta or by the individual authors, and none of the material may be used elsewhere without written permission. For reprint enquiries, contact us.