Writer and filmmaker, David Bezmozgis, in conversation with Dr. Naya Lekht, discusses his award-winning new novel, The Betrayers (2014), in context with his previous books, Natasha and Other Stories (2004) and The Free World (2011). Unfolding over the course of one day, The Betrayers, is the story of a disgraced Israeli politician who flees with his young mistress to Crimea, only to encounter the man who denounced him to the KGB forty years earlier. The novel explores the themes of personal and political morality set against contemporary Israel and the former Soviet Union.
About the Speaker: David Bezmozgis is an award-winning writer and filmmaker. His work has been translated into more than fifteen languages and his stories have appeared in The New Yorker and Harpers. The Betrayers won the National Jewish Book Award in Fiction, and Bezmozgis has been a finalist twice for Canada’s prestigious Scotiabank/Giller Prize and Governor General’s Award for Fiction as well numerous other prizes. In the summer of 2010, David was included in The New Yorker’s 20 Under 40 issue, celebrating the twenty most promising fiction writers under the age of forty. Bezmogis’ two feature films are, Victoria Day, which premiered at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival, and Natasha, which is due out in 2016. Born in Riga, Latvia, he lives in Toronto.
Conversation with:
David Bezmozgis (Author) and Naya Lekht (UCLA)
Sponsored by the
UCLA Alan D. Leve Center for Jewish Studies
Funding provided by the
Michael & Irene Ross Endowment
Cosponsored by the
UCLA Department of History
UCLA Department of Near Eastern Languages & Cultures
