Programme Details

Pulitzer Prize winning novelist Richard Ford continues in his restless search for the American heartland. Ford has lived in fourteen different states across the country and in Frank Bascombe has created one of the great American characters of the age. Bascombe appeared in The Sportswriter and in Independence Day and features in Ford's as yet unfinished next novel A Lay of the Land. Ford is set to embark on a low key tour of small towns in England where he is joined by the British poet Polly Clark. They both join Philip Dodd to discuss how Frank Bascombe is faring under Bush's second term.

Few people in Britain can have much idea of the cutting edge contemporary art of Zimbabwe. A new exhibition at Manchester Art Gallery focuses on the key issues facing Mugabe's troubled country, including land rights, AIDS, human rights and the rule of law. Thirteen different artists are represented, with images ranging from photos of the peace march in 2000 to a dress made entirely from condoms. Philip Dodd is joined by artists and writers from Zimbabwe to discuss the current plight of Zimbabwe from the insider's viewpoint.

Christian Parenti describes being stuck in the middle of a vicious two hour fire fight in a Baghdad suburb in his new book The Freedom. This is his journalistic account of the current war and occupation in Iraq which attempts to describe the reality on the ground for both sets of fighters away from newspaper headlines. The book has already been described as doing for Iraq what another iconic book, Dispatches, did for Vietnam. Parenti talks live to Philip Dodd on Night Waves.

And, from China, Louisa Lim reports on a film made in 1972 by the Italian director Michelangelo Antonioni about the Cultural Revolution which was banned in China and only now being shown. How have the Chinese responded to this outsider's vision of Mao's China?

Night Waves, live at 9.30pm on BBC Radio 3


Presenter: Philip Dodd
Producer: Anthony Denselow



Additional Information:
1) The Freedom by Christian Parenti is published by The New Press
2) Independence Day by Richard Ford is published by Vintage. His tour dates in the UK are: Brighton 4 Dec; Bracknell 6 Dec; Winchester 8 Dec; and Fareham 9 Dec.
3) Visions of Zimbabwe is at the Manchester Art Gallery until Feb 13th