Daniel Kehlmann and Benjamin Markovits - World Literature Weekend 2011

Part wunderkind and part enfant terrible, Kehlmann completed his first novel while still a student, and rose to worldwide fame in 2005 with the publication of Measuring the World, a historical novel based on the lives of the explorer and naturalist Alexander von Humboldt and the scientist Carl Gauss. His latest book is Fame: A Novel in Nine Episodes, a sequence of stories investigating the transience of identity in our technologised present. He appeared at the bookshop in conversation with Benjamin Markovits, LRB contributor and novelist whose books include The Syme Papers, Playing Days, and a trilogy inspired by the life of Lord Byron made up of Imposture, A Quiet Adjustment and Childish Loves.