Olga Tokarczuk on the Power of Words | The New Yorker

The author discusses “Yente,” her story from the latest issue of the magazine.

Save this story Save this story Photograph by Leonardo Cendamo / Getty The plot of “ Yente ,” your story in this week’s issue, revolves around a dying old woman, who is brought to a wedding party and kept alive, so as not to spoil the celebration, and who then, through her own craftiness, refuses to die. How did the idea for this character come to you? I have asked myself this question so many times: Where do literary characters come from? What is the inspiration behind characters? But it’s not a question I can really answer. They definitely don’t emerge from a simple, rational, pragmatic set

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