Laura van den Berg

Laura van den Berg's latest book is The Isle of Youth: Stories.

From her Q & A with Michael Hafford at Interview magazine:

MICHAEL HAFFORD: In the opening story, "I Looked for You, I Called Your Name," the narrator talks about being "half-present, half-absent." I noticed this camera-type narrator running through six of the seven stories, with the exception of "The Greatest Escape." What led you to those more passive narrators?

LAURA VAN DEN BERG: I was having a conversation about first-person narration with my friend who's a writer, her name's Elliot Holt, and she made this great observation where the "I" is an "eye" that really resonated with me. I think of that first person as a roving camera, and you're seeing where they choose to let the lens fall. And that's one of the most interesting logical components of first person—what the character is choosing to reveal and what they conceal. The tension between what is shown and what is hidden. I think these characters are desperate to tell their story, desperate to show the reader something, desperate to tell the reader something true, but also equally desperate to...[read on]

Learn about Laura van den Berg's six favorite unconventional mystery novels.

Visit Laura van den Berg's website.

Writers Read: Laura van den Berg (January 2010).

--Marshal Zeringue