Conversation: Joseph O’Neill, Author of ‘Netherland’

For his book “Netherland,” author Joseph O’Neill had a unique vantage point to explore the now-familiar literary terrain of post-9/11 New York. Not well known to most American readers, New York City’s cricket-playing community is certainly well known to O’Neill, who was born in Ireland and educated in the Netherlands and the United Kingdom.

“The very complexity and mystery of cricket is almost symbolic of the complexity and mystery of the wider world,” says O’Neill. “A wide world which became extremely impenetrable and alarming in the aftermath of 9/11.”

“Netherland” was the winner of this year’s PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction. Joseph O’Neill joined me recently to discuss his work.