Keneally’s Latest

Time magazine reviews Thomas Keneally’s latest book, The Tyrant’s Novel, about a writer who lives in an unnamed Arab dictatorship (but presumably this is Iraq.)

Soon after [his wife’s passing] he is drafted by Great Uncle to produce a novel in just 31 days that will be published in the West under the dictator’s name, all to dramatize the suffering of his nation under Western-imposed sanctions. Driven half-mad by the assignment, which he knows is the ultimate command performance, the brooding, ironic Sheriff is led to question the “profoundly placed markers as to who I was in the first place.” The answers, like the laughs, don’t come easy.

They’re comparing Keneally to Graham Greene so I’ll probably end up adding this one to the reading pile.