The Best of Writers and Company - by Eleanor Wachtel (Paperback)

About the Book

A new collection of interviews with some of the world's greatest authors, including Roth, Knausgård, Hemon, Zadie Smith, and others.

Book Synopsis

"[Eleanor's] sense of respect, her tact, her utter lack of obsequiousness . . . and her uncanny ability to ask difficult questions . . . have endeared her to readers and listeners."--Carol Shields

Eleanor Wachtel is one of the English-speaking world's most respected interviewers. This book, celebrating her show's twenty-five-year anniversary, presents her best conversations from the show, including Jonathan Franzen, Alice Munro, J.M. Coetzee, Zadie Smith, W.G. Sebald, Toni Morrison, Seamus Heaney, and nearly a dozen others who share their views on process and the writing life.

Eleanor Wachtel has been host of CBC Radio's Writers & Company since its inception in 1990.

Review Quotes

Praise for The Best of Writers and Company

"Wachtel's on-air manner--gently prodding, thoughtful and encouraging--has helped her to elicit profound responses from even her most reticent interview subjects. The breadth of her research is evident in her questions, and the interviews offer readers deep insights into the authors' backgrounds, inspirations, fears, and dreams--plus, of course, the books they write ... [T]his collection in print offers readers something to hold on to ... [A] useful reference to keep alongside favorite books."--Publishers Weekly

"If I need to convince you about a book of interviews selected by Eleanor Wachtel as her best from the first 25 years of Writers & Company, I really don't know what to say to you. Do you even like books? ... Wachtel brings such dedication, integrity, curiosity and elasticity of mind to her work - it doesn't really matter whether these 15 authors are your personal favourites, because you don't know what you want to know from them until they answer [her] questions."--The Globe & Mail

"Wachtel has been doing what she does so well, and for so long, that we could get lulled into taking her for granted. A fine corrective to that possibility has arrived in the form of The Best of Writers & Company, a new anthology gathering fifteen full-length interviews with an almost embarrassingly stellar list of writers. You'd be hard-pressed to find a book of comparable scope anywhere."--Montreal Gazette

"Eleanor Wachtel has spent a quarter-century interviewing the world's greatest authors ... [The Best of Writers & Company] includes her best exchanges."--Toronto Star

"[Eleanor Wachtel's style] is quiet, yet illuminating."--Peter Robb, Ottawa Citizen

Praise for The Best of Writers and Company

"Wachtel's on-air manner--gently prodding, thoughtful and encouraging--has helped her to elicit profound responses from even her most reticent interview subjects. The breadth of her research is evident in her questions, and the interviews offer readers deep insights into the authors' backgrounds, inspirations, fears, and dreams--plus, of course, the books they write ... [T]his collection in print offers readers something to hold on to ... [A] useful reference to keep alongside favorite books."--Publishers Weekly

"If I need to convince you about a book of interviews selected by Eleanor Wachtel as her best from the first 25 years of Writers & Company, I really don't know what to say to you. Do you even like books? ... Wachtel brings such dedication, integrity, curiosity and elasticity of mind to her work - it doesn't really matter whether these 15 authors are your personal favourites, because you don't know what you want to know from them until they answer [her] questions."--The Globe & Mail

"Wachtel has been doing what she does so well, and for so long, that we could get lulled into taking her for granted. A fine corrective to that possibility has arrived in the form of The Best of Writers & Company, a new anthology gathering fifteen full-length interviews with an almost embarrassingly stellar list of writers. You'd be hard-pressed to find a book of comparable scope anywhere."--Montreal Gazette

"Eleanor Wachtel has spent a quarter-century interviewing the world's greatest authors ... [The Best of Writers & Company] includes her best exchanges."--Toronto Star

"[Eleanor Wachtel's style] is quiet, yet illuminating."--Peter Robb, Ottawa Citizen

About the Author

Eleanor Wachtel was born and raised in Montreal, where she studied English literature at McGill University. Wachtel has worked as a Literary Commentator on CBC Stereo's State of the Arts, a writer-broadcaster for The Arts Tonight, a Toronto reporter for The Arts Report, as host of The Arts Tonight from 1996 to 2007 and has been host of CBC Radio's Writers & Company since its inception in 1990.