The author of This Strange Eventful History, longlisted for the Booker Prize 2024, discusses the need to tell the stories of worldviews that have vanished, and five books she would describe as ‘perfect’
Claire Messud
Claire Messud is an award-winning author. She lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts
She was named on the 2003 Granta Best of Young British Novelists list, although she was born in Connecticut, spent her childhood in the US, Australia, and Canada, and returned to live in the US as a teenager.
She has been longlisted for the Booker Prize twice. She describes writing as: ‘my own neurosis – didn’t Wittgenstein say as long as you’re writing, it’s neurosis? If we were cured, we would all stop.’ When she is not engaged with her neurosis, she teaches creative writing in some of the most prestigious universities in the US. Messud’s books have managed to be both critical and commercial successes despite the fact, as she says, ‘In writing as in life, it’s harder than you think.’
Epic in its scale, yet intimate in its detail, this compelling, timeless novel follows three generations of a Franco-Algerian family in their migrations around the world
The 2024 judges on This Strange Eventful History
All nominated books
This Strange Eventful History charts the Cassars' unfolding story, in a work of breathtaking historical sweep and vivid psychological intimacy
Claire Messud’s novel is an American classic – a sweeping portrait of one of the most fascinating cities in the world
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