Passa Porta, Brussels, Belgium

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).

For more information visit the Passa Porta website HERE.