Words At Large

What does a 19th-century classic of British literature have to do with a war-torn 20th-century tropical island? In this week’s Talking Books, host Ian Brown and his guests talk about the lessons of Lloyd Jones’s acclaimed novel Mister Pip (Knopf/Random House), which won the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize for overall best book in 2007 and was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize. One critic praised it as “a mesmerizing story which shows how books can change lives in utterly surprising ways.”

Mister Pip is set on Bougainville, an island in the South Pacific, during a civil war that took place in the early 1990s. The story is told from the point of view of 13-year-old Matilda. Because of the conflict, many people have fled or have joined the fighting; the sole white man who stays behind is the eccentric Mr. Watts, who takes over teaching the local children because there’s no one else to do it. The curriculum? He reads to them from Great Expectations — and inspires Matilda and her fellow pupils in unexpected ways.

Jones is an award-winning novelist and short story writer who has published more than a dozen books, including Here at the End of the World We Learn to Dance and Book of Fame. He lives in Wellington, New Zealand.

In this week’s podcast, Talking Books panelists Robert Adams, Sue Grimbley and P.K. Rangachari discuss what Mister Pip teaches about the power of stories and how Great Expectations is relevant to the characters’ lives. Listen to their conversation here:

First aired September 8, 2007 on Talking Books. [runs 24:10]