Programme Details

Isabel Hilton discusses the controversial Saudi writer Turki Al-Hamad and his latest novel describing the clash between tradition and modernity in Saudi Arabia. "Where I live there are three taboos - religion, politics and sex", he says. He dares to write about all three in his fiction yet continues to live and write in the country despite having his books banned and being the target of four fatwas. Isabel Hilton and guests discuss the second novel in his trilogy charting the life of a young student who moves from a small town to experience the surprising temptations and pressure of the Saudi capital, Riyadh.

Jonathan Glazer's first film, Sexy Beast, was widely acclaimed. His new film stars Nicole Kidman in a beautifully shot feature with a bizarre storyline. A ten year old boy claims to be the husband of a successful New York businesswoman whose own husband died in Central Park ten years before.
Birth is a story which raises fascinating issues, not only about the possibility of reincarnation but about the nature of relationships across the age divide. The Jungian psychoanalyst Christopher Hauke reviews Birth on tonight's Night Waves.

Also on Night Waves tonigh the award winning poet Peter Porter reads from and talks about his latest collection Afterburner, marking 50 years since the poets arrival in England from Australia;

The art critic Sarah Kent reviews the first night of a new production of Marlowe's Faustus which juxtaposes the original script with a parallel storyline about British artists the Chapman Brothers 

And novelist Glenn Paterson writes from Belfast about the rarely reported paramilitary activity which continues in the city while the peace process drags on.

Night Waves presented by Isabel Hilton at 9.30pm here on Radio 3. 





Presenter: Isabel Hilton
Producer: Anthony Denselow






Additional Information:
Shumaisi by Turki Al-Hamad is published by Saqi Books
 Birth  is released nationwide on 5th November 2004 certificate 15
Afterburner by Peter Porter is published by Picador.
Faustus is now on at the Royal Theatre, Northampton where it runs until November 20th.