Paul Theroux talks to Isabel Hilton about his new novel Blinding Light which was inspired by his trip to Ecuador in the footsteps of William Burroughs.
Programme Details
After the brutal murder of three 8-year olds in West Memphis, Arkansas, three teenage boys were arrested and charged with the killings. Two were sentenced to life and one, Damien Echols, awaits execution by lethal injection. They were accused of sacrificing the boys as part of a satanic ritual. They have constantly pleaded their innocence and an award wining documentary, Paradise Lost, took up their cause and prompted a nationwide action committee. The documentary makers, Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky, then went on to make a follow up film which revisits the case six years after the verdicts and offers a graphic portrait of a possible new suspect - in the form of the stepfather of one of the murdered boys. In tonight's Night Waves Isabel Hilton talks to Berlinger and Sinofsky about the case and about the role of the documentary in attempting to influence such a sensitive subject.
Paul Theroux is one prolific writer. As well as his travel journalism and non fiction he has written over 25 novels. His latest, Blinding Light, tells the story of a middle aged travel writer who heads on a drugs tour of Central America looking for inspiration and a cure for a failing relationship. Chris Bigsby reviews the novel on Night Waves .
Also on the programme: the latest in our series of commissioned writing about African universities - Mohamed Gibril Sesay writes about war torn Fourah Bay College in Sierra Leone; and Isabel Hilton meets one of Europe's finest living artists, the German Anselm Kiefer whose new work is inspired by the eccentric Russian experimentalist Velimir khlebnikov.
Night Waves, live at 9.30pm here on BBC Radio 3.
Presenter: Isabel Hilton
Producer: Anthony Denselow
