Writing about catastrophe gives Madeleine Thien courage

Bookends with Mattea Roach

As a child, Madeleine Thien loved to sit on her father’s lap as he flipped through the newspaper. Later on, she became fascinated by the newspaper archives at the Vancouver Public Library. Her exploration of history and storytelling continues with novels such as Do Not Say We Have Nothing. Now she's back with her long-awaited new novel, The Book of Records. The book questions the very nature of time, asking how great thinkers like Hannah Arendt lived through catastrophes of the past — and what they can tell us about surviving today.

Want to know why Madeleine loved our interview with Cory Doctorow? Take a listen here:

• We can still avoid a tech dystopia — here’s how