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Debut author: Karl Taro Greenfeld Debut author: Karl Taro Greenfeld
(7 months later)
The lives of a group of upper-middle-class New Yorkers, members of the city's creative elite who are raising their children in Manhattan's Tribeca neighbourhood, are deftly captured in Karl Taro Greenfeld's first novel, Triburbia (Atlantic).The lives of a group of upper-middle-class New Yorkers, members of the city's creative elite who are raising their children in Manhattan's Tribeca neighbourhood, are deftly captured in Karl Taro Greenfeld's first novel, Triburbia (Atlantic).
Praised by Jay McInerney for his "keen observational skills", Greenfeld's writing has been likened to Updike and Cheever for its perceptive and lively portrayal of contemporary American life.Praised by Jay McInerney for his "keen observational skills", Greenfeld's writing has been likened to Updike and Cheever for its perceptive and lively portrayal of contemporary American life.
The son of an American father and a Japanese mother, it was Greenfeld's experience of raising two daughters in Tribeca that gave him inspiration for the book. "When you have children, you have a different sense of community," he says. "The topography of where you live changes and you feel much more attached to it. That's why I began to write this story – not just about one family, but about a place that changes over the course of one year, dipping into different characters' lives."The son of an American father and a Japanese mother, it was Greenfeld's experience of raising two daughters in Tribeca that gave him inspiration for the book. "When you have children, you have a different sense of community," he says. "The topography of where you live changes and you feel much more attached to it. That's why I began to write this story – not just about one family, but about a place that changes over the course of one year, dipping into different characters' lives."
New to fiction, Greenfeld has an established career in journalism and non-fiction, with previous books covering subjects such as urban life in Japan and growing up with an autistic brother. His writing has appeared in GQ, Vogue, Paris Review and the New York Times.New to fiction, Greenfeld has an established career in journalism and non-fiction, with previous books covering subjects such as urban life in Japan and growing up with an autistic brother. His writing has appeared in GQ, Vogue, Paris Review and the New York Times.
"One of the things that inspired me to take up fiction," he says, "was the way that long-form narrative journalism was narrowing in terms of the expansiveness of the storytelling and the publications that would run these pieces. So I thought: if I want to tell stories, the only place I can do that now is in fiction.""One of the things that inspired me to take up fiction," he says, "was the way that long-form narrative journalism was narrowing in terms of the expansiveness of the storytelling and the publications that would run these pieces. So I thought: if I want to tell stories, the only place I can do that now is in fiction."
For him, entertaining readers is just as important as making sure his observations about society ring true. "The book is meant to have a Sex in the City-style bounce to it, rather than just being a cutting cultural commentary."For him, entertaining readers is just as important as making sure his observations about society ring true. "The book is meant to have a Sex in the City-style bounce to it, rather than just being a cutting cultural commentary."
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