Meet the author Geoff Dyer

Thu 20.07.2023
20:00 - 21:30
GeoffDyer_copy_Guy_DraytonOK_LR.jpg

Category

meet the author

Price

€5

Language

in english

Meet the author


The meetings with writers at Passa Porta, prepared with passion, courage and thoroughness, are more than simply the presentation of literary works. We seek to achieve a genuine connection between writer and reader, and among readers themselves.

Go to overview

Geoff Dyer is one of the great daredevils of British literature. He stubbornly refuses to write the same book twice, breaking new ground each time. His boundless curiosity has produced classics on subjects as diverse as film (Zona on Tarkovsky’s Stalker), jazz (But beautiful) and World War I (The Missing of the Somme). In his latest book, The Last Days of Roger Federer and Other Endings, he describes in a most entertaining way the last works and years of some of his favourite artists.

When does the end set in? In his new book, Geoff Dyer looks for the beginning of the end in the careers of beloved artists, musicians and sportspeople. In his familiar pointed style, Dyer writes about Friedrich Nietzsche’s mental crisis, J.M.W. Turner’s almost abstract final paintings and Bob Dylan’s never-ending tour. So does it never end? Sometimes it does, but when? In his sharp and jesting studies, the writer spares no one, not even himself.

“Tennis, jazz, Dylan, movies, drugs, Nietzsche, Beethoven. So why am I laughing? Because Geoff Dyer once again melds commentary and observation with intellect and wit. Bouncing between criticism and memoir, Dyer is one of the few writers whose paragraphs I can immediately reread and get more from. The twists, turns, and delights abound, and when you finally put the book down you think, 'Oh, yes, I’ve always been this smart, haven’t I?'”
Steve Martin

Interviewer and booklover Melissa Giardina talks to the man who, not entirely unjustly, has been described as ‘possibly Britain’s best prose writer’ (New York Magazine).

About the author

Geoff Dyer (b. 1958) is one of England’s most unique authors. He enjoys great respect in both literary and journalistic circles. Dyer has published four novels: Paris Trance, The Search, The Colour of Memory and Jeff in Venice, Death in Varanasi. His oeuvre also includes many non-fiction titles. Dyer was educated at Corpus Christi College, Oxford. In 2005 he became a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. His work has appeared in 24 languages and been awarded such prestigious prizes as the Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Prize for best comic novels.

About the moderator

Melissa Giardina (b. 1986) is the face of Vindetta!, a company that brings together everything Melissa loves most: moderating, interviewing and editing as well as translation, PR and communications. She is also a notorious booklover, keen on beauty and wonder, who worked as a bookseller for several years. Her roots lie in Brussels but she lives and reads in Ghent.

photo © Graham Jepson