As It Happens

Michael Cunningham on love, drugs and modern fables

The title evokes the story of Hans Christian Anderson. But Michael Cunningham's latest novel is no childhood fairy tale. Mr. Cunningham jokes: "It's like Frozen but no songs." The story begins during the U.S. Presidential election in November 2004....
The title evokes the story of Hans Christian Anderson. But Michael Cunningham's latest novel is no childhood fairy tale. Mr. Cunningham jokes: "It's like Frozen but no songs." The story begins during the U.S. Presidential election in November 2004.
"I find politics weirdly absent from American fiction," says Mr. Cunningham.

The Snow Queen follows the lives of four New Yorkers. It is dark, tragic, luminous and comic.

Earlier this month Carol interviewed Michael Cunningham on stage at an International Festival of Authors Weekly event. 

In 1998 he won the Pulitzer Prize for his novel The Hours, which was later made into a film starring Nicole Kidman and Meryl Streep. His other novels include "Speciman Days" and "By Nightfall."

The Snow Queen is published by Farrar, Straus And Giroux.