22 February 2006
Wednesday 22 February 2006 21:45-22:15 (Radio 3)
Linda Grant talks to Isabel Hilton about her new book, The People on the Street: A Writer's View of Israel.
Programme Details
Novelist Linda Grant finds the combination of being both Jewish and British an uncomfortable experience; she describes it as a "category error". But she felt so comfortable visiting Tel Aviv - Israel 's most vibrant and modern city - that she stayed on to write a book about the international community she encountered there. She found herself drawn to Tel Aviv (and to Israeli life and style) not by any interest in Zionism or Middle Eastern politics but by the energy and spirit of the place. The resulting work, The People on the Street, is a writer's view of contemporary Israel.
In tonight's Night Waves Isabel Hilton talks to Linda Grant about the city of Tel Aviv and about the existence of a state whose everyday reality is still determined by its troubled history. How does the more secular minded Tel Aviv compare with the historic religious centre of Jerusalem? And what role will religion have in determining the future of Israel?
And the city of Istanbul is celebrated in a new film by the award winning young Turkish director Fatih Akin. In Crossing the Bridge he offers a sound portrait of the city. He meets street buskers and concert musicians, singers and performers influenced by both East and West, rock, hip hop, classical Turkish music and mystical devotional music. It is a haunting and hugely effective contemporary history of one of the world's great cities. Maureen Freely, who has translated the work of Turkey's most famous writer Orhan Pamuk and who knows Istanbul intimately, discusses the film.
Join us for Night Waves, a tale of two cities, with Isabel Hilton this Wednesday evening at 9.45 here on BBC Radio 3.
Additional Information:
1) Fatih Akin's film, Crossing The Bridge: The Sound of Istanbul, is released on Friday 24 February, Certificate 12A.
2) People on the Street by Linda Grant is published in paperback by Virago at the end of February.
