BEST AUTHOR BEST : ANNIE ERNAUX

The 2022 Nobel Laureate - whose most recent book is '' The Young Man, '' can read anywhere so long as it's quiet : '' The first condition is silence. The when and where do not matter. ''

.- What's your favorite book no one else has heard of?

It's probably presumptuous to think that no one today has heard of '' Little Boy Lost,'' by Marghanita Laski.

.- What moves you most in work of literature?

To be surprised, changed by a text.

.- What book might people be surprised to find on your shelves?

I have no idea; it's their problem not mine.

.- What books are on your night stand?

Right now, I'm reading a work that I read 60 years ago. '' Tragic Sense of Life,'' by Miguel de Unamuno. 

I'm also reading a narrative that has just been published [ I receive a lot of them, and read only a few],  called '' Tombe du Ciel,'' about a son's quest to know his father, a slate roofer who died at age 30 when he fell off a building where he was working.

.- What's the last great book you read?

I can say without hesitation that it's '' Triste Tigre '' by Neige Sinno, a French author who lives in Mexico.

Her book, which took her 20 years to write, recounts the seven years of rape, perpetrated on her by her stepfather. Published in France this summer, it is the most powerful, profound book I've ever read about the devastation of one person's childhood by an adult.

.- Describe your ideal reading experience [ when, where, what, how ].

The first condition is silence. The when and where do not matter. On the other hand, I need to be seated comfortably with the book on my knees, not on a table.

I also need a pencil to underline passages and jot down thoughts. And to have plenty of time, though there can be pleasure in reading a book while an urgent task awaits.

.- Which writers - novelists, playwrights, critics, journalists, poets - working today do you admire most?

Marie NDiaye, Julie Otsuka, Florence Aubenas, Peter Handke.

.- What other writers of autofiction do you personally recommend?

Camille Laurens, Maria Pourchet, Edouard Louis.

.- And what contemporary French writers deserve a wider audience elsewhere?

Dominique Barberis, Pascal Quignard.

.- What writers are especially good on memory and its role in our lives?

Proust, obviously! And Patrick Modiano.

.- Do you count any books as guilty pleasure?

No, I admit without shame to all my reading pleasures, past and present.

.- Has a book ever brought you closer to another person, or come between you?

When someone I don't like very much likes the same book as me, I tend to be less harsh toward that person. And I've never gone so far as to fall out with someone over a book.

But I am very disappointed when someone doesn't like a book that I have liked and, conversely, when someone praises a book that I hated, I feel as if we don't see the world in the same way, that it's a profound disagreement, and I don't ever forget it.

.-  What's the most interesting thing you learned from a book recently?

I don't feel as if I'm ''learning'' something specific from a book, but that what I'm living while reading is happening both inside and outside me : an experience.

.- What's the best book you've ever received as a gift?

'' In Search of Lost Time,'' which my husband gave me for my 25th birthday.

.- What kind of reader were you as a child? Which childhood books and authors stick with you most?

I was an insatiable reader : books, women's magazines, the local daily newspaper ''Jane Eyre, '' by Charlotte Bronte, '' Oliver Twist '' by Charles Dickens, " Gone With the Wind,'' by Margaret Mitchell -they all left me with lasting memories. I thought the authors were talking about beings who had existed.

.- You're organising a literary dinner party. Which three writers, dead or alive, do you invite?

Flaubert, Virginia Woolf, Camus.

.- What do you plan to read next?

Novels by a Swedish author, Sara Stridsberg, whose book, '' The Antarctica of Love '', I infinitely admired.

The World Students Society thanks The New York Times.

EURO 2024 ITALY : FOOTBALL BOOKED

 

Holders Italy book place in Euro 2024.  Azzuri escaped with a draw, Czech Republic and Slovenia also qualified.

PARIS : Reigning champions Italy escaped their ticket for Euro 2024 last Monday after holding on for a nervy goalless against Ukraine in their final qualifier, while the Czech Republic and Slovenia also clinched places at next year's final.

Italy only needed the draw in a game played in Leverkusen, Germany,in order to qualify but a defeat against their direct rivals in Group C would have left their fate to be decided in play-offs next March.

That was a scenario they desperately wanted to avoid following the trauma of failing to qualify for the 2018 and 2020 World Cups after losing in play-offs, either side of winning the last European Championship in 2021.

The high stakes made it a tense occasion and Italy goalkeeper Gianlugi Donnarumma had to produce a firm hand low down to keep out an early Georgiy strike.

However, Luciano Spalleti's side threatened at the other end with Ukraine keeper Anatoliy Trubin saving from Nicolo Barella and racing out to deny 

David Frattesi before the half-hour mark.

Donnarumma blocked a Mykhailo Mudryk attempt in the 65th minute and there was a flashpoint in stoppage time when the Ukraine winger went down in the Italy box under a Bryan Cristante challenge,but no penalty was given.

The two nations finish level on 14 points behind England in Group C, but Italy have the better head-to-head record having won 2-1 in Milan in September.

'' We are delighted. After all the difficulties we have had, we will be in Germany and we will be going there as reigning champions and going there to win,'' Donnarumma told broadcaster Rai 1.

Ukraine must therefore negotiate the play-offs if they are to return to Germany for the tournament next June. [AFP]

CHINA'S EDUCATION CHIMES : GLOBAL ESSAY HISTORY

 

2012 : ' A NEW SCHOOL OF THOUGHT IN CHINA. Science and engineering aren't enough. To stay competitive, the next generation of Chinese students is heading into the future armed with liberal arts degrees.

XING WEI COLLEGE is built, almost literally, on the ruins of the old model.

Its founder, Chen Weiming, graduated from Harvard Business School in 1993 and was working in finance in Shanghai when his company acquired a technical college that was deeply in debt.

'' As I started running the college, I started thinking more about what its future would be,'' Chen says. He noticed the wave of students trying to go overseas - there were 157, 558 Chinese students in U.S. colleges accounting for more than one-fifth of international students - but most of them study management or engineering.

'' Our idea was that China should have its own liberal arts colleges,'' Chen says. Sohe phased out the technical school in 2010 and started Xing Wei on the same campus, shrinking it to a maximum student body of 1,000 from the 10,000 it housed before.

A New School Of Thought In China : Science and Engineering aren't enough. To stay competitive, the next generation of Chinese students is heading into the future armed with liberal-arts degrees.

TINA LIN WAS A MODEL CHINESE high school student, with good grades and dreams of attending a top university. Then she hit a wall : the gaokao, the all important multiday examination that determines where all Chinese students go to college and even what subjects they can study.

Lin's score was decent but not high enough for admissions to the engineering or science program at an elite university. She struggled over what to do next until stumbling onto a new liberal arts college, Xing Wei College in Shanghai, at a school fair.

Lin joined Xing Wei's first incoming class of 30 students, which includes two Americans this fall. ''In traditional schools, students don't ask questions. They just keep silent,'' Lin says. But I like to ask questions. And I want to do something different.''

It was not an easy choice. She will be following an unconventional education path at a tiny, unknown school in a country where even the phrase liberal arts is frowned upon.

The direct translation, ziyou, jiaoyu, connotes freedom and democracy - sensitive topics in China - so less direct phrases like  general education and culturally quality education are used instead.

Lin's family, meanwhile, worries that students with specialised engineering or science degrees will be more competitive  than Lin in the job market.

While still a small minority of the 23 million Chinese in college, students like Lin are increasingly common.

China's economy is making a painful break from its reliance on cheap manufacturing, so students and educators are beginning to wonder whether the old educational model still works.

Some question whether the utilitarian bent of China's higher education system has left its youth without a strong sense of morality, contributing to rampant corruption and fraud.

'' Highly specialized education often ignores ethical, cultural and moral values.'' said Lu Fang, vice president of Fudan University in Shanghai, in a speech last year.

'' Along with a lack of humanity, some students are missing a sense of social responsibility.''

These uncertainties are fueling the growth of dozens of new Chinese liberal arts institutions formed in the mold of elite U.S. colleges.

The Chinese government and many educators have realized that traditional professional training is not giving students adequate analytical problem solving skills, says Jiang Yougus, an independent scholar who researches higher education at Harvard's Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies.

'' It's a turning point for China's Education Ministry and universities and educators to start thinking about what kind of citizens they need to cultivate to meet local Chinese needs and global needs.''

The Publishing continues. The World Students Society thanks Austin Ramzy.