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Lily Tuck Biography, Books, and Similar Authors

Author Biography  | Interview  | Books by this Author  | Read-Alikes

Lily Tuck

Lily Tuck

Lily Tuck Biography

Born in Paris, Lily Tuck is the author of Interviewing Matisse or The Woman Who Died Standing Up (1991); The Woman Who Walked on Water (1996); Siam or the Woman Who Shot a Man: A Novel (1999); The News From Paraguay (2004), winner of the 2004 National Book Award; and I Married You For Happiness (2011). She is also the author of a book of short stories entitled Limbo, or Other Places I Have Lived (2002) and a biography, Woman of Rome: A Life of Elsa Morante (2002). Her short fiction has appeared in the New Yorker, Fiction, and the Antioch Review. She divides her time between Maine and New York City and has lived in Thailand, Uruguay and Peru.



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Interview

Lily Tuck discusses The News From Paraguay - winner of the National Book Award.

You've never been to Paraguay but you spent your childhood in Peru and Uruguay and you spoke three different languages by the time you were ten years old. Can you talk about the effect South America had on you? Has living in other countries given you a perspective that perhaps staying in one place for a lifetime, which many great writers do, would not have given you?
My childhood, although not unhappy, was a solitary one. I was an only child and my parents had to move a lot - first from Germany, then France, then South America - to escape the war and persecution. This also meant that I had to change schools several times and learn different languages. The result of this, I think, is that I had to rely on my imagination for company and entertainment. It also forced me to read a lot.

I was very young when I lived in South America so my memories are quite vague and mostly associated with family events. However, I do remember the lushness and the bright colors in our garden - the color red especially stays in my head.

I feel certain that living in other countries has given me a different perspective as a writer. It has heightened my sense of dislocation and rootlessness. One of my favorite quotes is from the poet, ...

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Books by this Author

Books by Lily Tuck at BookBrowse
The Rest Is Memory jacket Sisters jacket The Double Life of Liliane jacket The House at Belle Fontaine jacket
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Read-Alikes

All the books below are recommended as read-alikes for Lily Tuck but some maybe more relevant to you than others depending on which books by the author you have read and enjoyed. So look for the suggested read-alikes by title linked on the right.
How we choose read-alikes

  • Julian Barnes

    Julian Barnes

    Julian Barnes was born in Leicester, England on January 19, 1946. He was educated at the City of London School from 1957 to 1964 and at Magdalen College, Oxford, from which he graduated in modern languages (with honors) in ... (more)

    If you enjoyed:
    I Married You for Happiness

    Try:
    The Sense of an Ending
    by Julian Barnes

  • Chanel Cleeton

    Chanel Cleeton

    Chanel Cleeton is the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of The Cuban Heiress, Our Last Days in Barcelona, The Most Beautiful Girl in Cuba, The Last Train to Key West, When We Left Cuba, and Reese's Book Club ... (more)

    If you enjoyed:
    The News from Paraguay

    Try:
    Next Year in Havana
    by Chanel Cleeton

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