• Meet The Authors: February

Meet The Authors: February

• Rating:
• 
• (0 votes)
• Rate this!
  Rate this!

  Rate this feature

Sebastian Junger set a new standard for non-fiction when he wrote The Perfect Storm back in 1997. His portrayal of the men and women who confront the sea in order to make their living—and battle to save their own lives—has the richness of Moby Dick, while his revelations about the power of the sea itself build up to a horrifying climax as intense as a thriller. Since the stunning success of the book and the film (which starred George Clooney) Junger has been drawn again to danger and adventure, publishing A Death in Belmont and Fire. He has also established The Perfect Storm Foundation, to provide cultural and educational grants to children in the US whose parents make their living in the commercial fishing industry. In August comes his new book, War, an incisive account of the conflict in Afghanistan.

Read an extract from The Perfect Storm.

Author of the Month: Lang Lang

Lang Lang, born in 1981 during China’s new one-child policy, showed a precocious talent for the piano. His musician father had suffered under the Cultural Revolution, and this thwarted ambition became directed into a brilliant career for his son. At the age of five, Lang Lang won the first official piano competition he entered, in his home town of Shenyang. He continued to study and to win, but sometimes he received a consolation prize instead. Once it was a stuffed yellow dog, which became a symbol of defeat to the young boy. ‘After my failure, I placed the yellow dog next to my old piano, and whenever I played a wrong note, I would kick the dog. One day I was practising a Mozart sonata, and as usual when I messed up, I tortured the dog. Suddenly, though, a sense of surrender overcame me, and, miraculously, I played the piece effortlessly and flawlessly. I looked down at the dog and, for the first time, saw that on his face was a smile. His smile had been there all along, but I hadn’t noticed it. I had misunderstood that yellow dog. He was not there to remind me of defeat. He was a source of inspiration.’

Lang Lang moved to Beijing with his father for a lonely marathon of study and practice. His father was obsessed with musical success, even to the extent of demanding that the nine-year-old Lang Lang agree to a suicide pact. Lang Lang’s recent autobiography, Journey of a Thousand Miles, reveals that at this point the simple kindness of a fruiterer down the road, and a visit from a neighbour next to their tiny apartment, reawakened the young boy’s innate joy in music. Eventually, after studying and playing in the US, he succeeded beyond even his father’s ambitions. Heralded as the ‘hottest artist on the classical music planet’ by the New York Times, he was the first Chinese pianist ever to be engaged by the Berlin Philharmonic, the Vienna Philharmonic and top American orchestras. Now in his late twenties, he plays sold-out recitals and concerts in every major city in the world. In August 2008, over 5 billion people viewed his ­performance in Beijing’s opening ceremony for the Games of the XXIX Olympiad, and he served as musical ambassador to China throughout the Olympic year. He is UNICEF’s youngest international Goodwill Ambassador.

Journey of a Thousand Miles is the poignant, emotionally charged story of a young man’s struggle to realise his own dreams. It also recounts an intimate journey towards joy and release, as Lang Lang gently leads us each step of the way along his path to worldwide success, and into the very soul of music.

Lang Lang entered his first European piano contest at the age of twelve, and he wanted to be Number One. But unexpectedly, in a practice room in Ettlingen, Germany, he found himself at the emotional heart of music, playing with, not against, another competitor.

Take a sneak peek into Journey of a Thousand Miles

Lang Lang’s American debut at Steinway Hall, at the age of fourteen. His story appears in Encounters in April.

From Reader's Digest Interactive