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Episode details

Radio 3,18 Mar 2013,45 mins

David Bowie, Javier Marias, David Cannadine

Night Waves

Available for over a year

Matthew Sweet talks to the Spanish novelist Javier Marias about his new book 'The Infatuations' in which the murder novel becomes a metaphysical enquiry into death, love and morality. What is truth? Love? Why is it threatening for the dead to return to us? In his new book 'The Undivided Past' David Cannadine is looking beyond the supposed clash of religions, classes and civilisations to the things that unite us with a plea to those engaged in public debate to see our common humanity across the world and history. Is an attempt to 'undivide' the past a useful tool for re-emphasising what brings us together in the present? Or does a "History Beyond Our Differences" lead to confusion in the absence of polarised views? But there's always David Bowie - he never lost control, and tonight Night Waves takes stock of the man who sold the world as a new exhibition 'David Bowie is....' gets set to open at the Victoria and Albert Museum later this week.

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