Daily: Read fiction to save democracy, with writer George Saunders

<p>The American writer <strong>George Saunders</strong> won the 2017 Booker Prize with <a href="https://www.hive.co.uk/Product/George-Saunders/Lincoln-in-the-Bardo--WINNER-OF-THE-MAN-BOOKER-PRIZE-2017/21045389" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"><em>Lincoln In The Bardo</em></a> and is an award-winning author of short stories. His new book <a href="https://www.hive.co.uk/Product/George-Saunders/A-Swim-in-a-Pond-in-the-Rain--From-the-Man-Booker-Prize-w/24982288" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"><em>A Swim In A Pond In The Rain</em></a> explains how short stories work with the aid of Chekhov, Turgenev, Tolstoy, and Dorian Lynskey is a fan. George Saunders talks to Dorian about his “shovel in the fictive graveyard”, being a working class writer in a middle class world, the value of “looming catastrophe” in life and art…&nbsp;and why reading fiction is the best training for spotting lies in loved ones, colleagues and politicians.&nbsp;</p><p><br></p><ul><li>“<em>I had the idea that literature was a beautiful gilded mansion and I had to leave all my real shit at the door. And it’s not true.”</em></li><li>“<em>Our basic storytelling gland has to do with curiosity”</em></li><li><em>“My job as a writer is to get to a place where the world doesn</em>’<em>t surprise me.”</em></li><li>“<em>A story isn</em>’<em>t a monolithic whole that comes from the writer</em>’<em>s moral qualities. It</em>’<em>s a magic trick made out of fragments of language.”</em></li><li>“<em>When you</em>’<em>ve got an administration that rejects enlightenment values they</em>’<em>re not susceptible to satire. And I found that with Trump.”</em></li></ul><p><br></p><p><em>Presented by Dorian Lynskey. Produced by Andrew Harrison. Assistant producers: Jelena Sofronijevic&nbsp; and Jacob Archbold. Music by Kenny Dickinson. Audio production by Alex Rees. </em><strong><em>The Bunker is a Podmasters Production</em></strong></p> &#10;&nbsp;<br /><hr><p style='color: grey; font - size: 0.75em; '>See <a style='color: grey; ' target='_blank' rel