The Moment Under the Moment - Tapa dura

A collection of stories, a libretto, essays and sketches. The subjects include knife-fights, a stone sphinx in Paris, a reinvention of Miranda and Caliban, All India Radio, Thelonius Monk, fairy tales and the author's own childhood in America. His novels include "Turtle Diary" and "Pilgermann".

Born in 1925 in Pennsylvania, Russell Hoban was an illustrator before becoming a writer, and has written many books for children. His adult novels are The Lion of Boaz-Jachin and Jachin-Boaz, Kleinzeit, Riddley Walker, Pilgermann and The Medusa Frequency, and in 1992 he published The Moment Under the Moment, a collection of stories, a libretto, essays and sketches. In 1994 his opera collaboration with Sir Harrison Birtwhistle, The Second Mrs Kong, won much critical acclaim in its Glyndebourne performance.