1914 - Goodbye to All That: Writers On the Conflict Between Life and Art
Ali Smith, Ales Steger, Jeanette Winterson, Elif Shafak, NoViolet Bulawayo, Colm Toibin, Xiaolu Guo, Erwin Mortier, Kamila Shamsie, Daniel KehlmannA wide-ranging collection of reflective essays, written with "tender, compassionate humanity” (The Observer), marking the centenary of the conflict that changed the world.
In this collection of essays, ten leading writers from different countries consider the conflicts that have informed their own literary lives. 1914 - Goodbye to All That borrows its title from Robert Graves's "bitter leave-taking of England" in which he writes not only of the First World War but the questions it raised: how to live, how to live with each other, and how to write.
Interpreting this title as broadly and ambiguously as Graves intended, these essays mark the War's centenary by reinvigorating these questions.
“This superb collection of essays by some of today’s leading writers stands out among the many books commissioned to mark the centenary of the First World War.” - The Lady