Ancient Light
John Banville
2012 • Viking
[W]e invent the past. I know some of my memories are made up and they are far more powerful than the things that actually happened. For example, I always remember my brother posting me a copy of Dubliners from Africa, but he says he never did. For memory, we use our imagination. We take a few strands of real time and carry them with us, then like an oyster we create a pearl around them.
— John Banville
Ancient Light
John Banville
2012 • Viking
[W]e invent the past. I know some of my memories are made up and they are far more powerful than the things that actually happened. For example, I always remember my brother posting me a copy of Dubliners from Africa, but he says he never did. For memory, we use our imagination. We take a few strands of real time and carry them with us, then like an oyster we create a pearl around them.
— John Banville
Description
Ancient Light is John Banville’s 16th novel. It is the final part of a trilogy (the first is Eclipse, published in 2000, and the second, Shroud, published in 2002) about the character Alexander Cleave, and Cass, his daughter.
Excerpts
Interviews
- The Scotsman: Interview - John Banville, Author of Ancient Light
- The Irish Examiner: 'Ancient Light is as Near Perfect as a Novel can be'
- The Daily Beast: 'How I Write - John Banville on "Ancient Light," Nabokov, and Dublin'
- New Statesman: John Banville - 'Sex is Wonderful but Writing About it is Terrible'
- Paris Review: John Banville - The Art of Fiction
- LA Review of Books: 'I Hate Genre': An Interview with John Banville/Benjamin Black
- writing.ie: 'John Banville's Ancient Light - Of Memory and Invention'
Prizes & Awards
Reviews
- John Preston, The Telegraph
- Christopher Benfey, The New York Times
- Joan Acocella, New Yorker
- Alex Clark, The Guardian
- Charles Baxter, New York Review of Books
- Vulpes Libris Blog
- Keshava D. Guha, The Harvard Crimson
- Leyla Sanai, The Independent
- Malcolm Forbes, The Star Tribune
- Keith Miller, The Telegraph
- Emer O'Kelly, Irish Independent
- Talitha Stevenson. New Statesman
- Tim Adams, The Guardian
- Jake Kerridge, Express
Audio
- Radio Prague International: John Banville - Claiming Kafka as an Irish Writer
- WNYC: John Banville's Ancient Light
Video
- Penguin Books UK : John Banville Reads From Ancient Light
- RTÉ Arts Lives: Being John Banville (part 1)
- RTÉ Arts Lives: Being John Banville (part 2)
- Columbia Global Centers: John Banville in Conversation - When Prose Meets Poetry
- UCC Ireland: In Conversation with John Banville
- Instituto Cervantes Dublín: John Banville at the Isla Festival 2013
- 92nd Street Y: John Banville and Colum McCann at the 92nd Street Y
- The James Joyce Centre: Will Self & John Banville Discuss 'Dubliners' in Conversation With Carlo Gébler
