DURHAM -- Triangle book lovers are used to seeing the best writers in the country on a regular basis. But it's not as often that an author of such renown as A.S. Byatt pays a visit. The English novelist's two appearances this week constitute an uncommon treat.
That's especially true because she is visiting only 12 U.S. cities on a tour to promote her new novel, "The Children's Book," which was short-listed for the Man Booker Prize that went to Hilary Mantel last week. Byatt won the Booker in 1990 for her most famous work, "Possession."
Byatt is commonly mentioned as a candidate to win a Nobel Prize in literature some day. She has been knighted, and two of her stories have been made into movies.
"She is a world-class writer," said Toril Moi, a literary scholar and Duke professor who will talk with Byatt on stage on Friday. "She has written very serious work, and she has been doing it now for about 40 years."
Moi said she would ask Byatt what it means to write fiction, particularly fiction that is so "densely wrought," and ask her what it tells us about the world. She also plans to ask what Byatt thinks it means to be a woman writing today and about her new novel, which was published in the United States last week. It's the story of an English children's book author and three families whose lives are woven together as Europe is about to plunge into World War I. Moi says it presents a conflict between the beauty of art and the destruction of war and how they somehow coexist.
"It's a marvelous book," Moi said. "It's very moving, stunning."
On Thursday, Byatt will give a free reading at the Perkins Library at Duke University.
Friday's conversation between Byatt and Moi will take place at the National Humanities Center in Research Triangle Park, which will seat about 200 people. The event is free but registration is required, as it's expected to be a full house.
The center had hoped to land Byatt last year for its series of conferences on science, art and the humanities, but she was unavailable, spokesman Don Solomon said. With Duke University co-sponsoring, the timing was right for organizers to snag her on her U.S. tour.
"Since her work often deals with the mix of arts and science and humanities -- the world of the academy and thought -- she's attractive to people who live in the Triangle," Solomon said.
Moi was chosen to participate because she was a fellow at the National Humanities Center. Byatt's visit will be paid for through a fellowship fund established by local philanthropist Dr. Assad Meymandi, which has brought such speakers as E.O. Wilson, Michael Pollan and Oliver Sacks.
