We meet the unnamed narrator of Mark Helprin's new novel
Elegy In Blue when he’s 82-years-old. He was a man of wealth and standing but has wound up alone in a subsidized studio apartment in Brooklyn. Through war and violence, he’s lost his father, his son, and his wife. Now, the narrator says, “his allegiance is to ghosts.” In today’s episode, Helprin joins NPR’s Scott Simon for a conversation about the autobiographical nature of
Elegy in Blue. They discuss how Helprin’s wife inspired a central character in the novel and why the narrator – and Helprin – chose to stay in New York.
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