Conversations from the Cullman Center: The Other Paris: Luc Sante and Ian Buruma

Luc Sante discusses his new book on the hidden past and seamy underside of Paris, The Other Paris, with Ian Buruma. Drawing on testimony from a great range of witnesses--Balzac and Hugo to assorted boulevardiers, rabble-rousers, and tramps--and illustrated with more than three hundred images, Sante’s book reveals pre-Haussmann Paris as it was lived and experienced by the forgotten poor.

This event is co-organized with the New York Review of Books.

Luc Sante was born in Verviers, Belgium, and now lives in New York City. His books include Low Life, Evidence, and The Factory of Facts,  and his work has appeared in The New York Review of Books, The New Republic, and Harper's, among other publications. He teaches writing and the history of photography at Bard College. He worked on The Other Paris while in residence at the Cullman Center in 2012-2013.

Ian Buruma is a writer, journalist, and professor at Bard College. He was educated in Holland and Japan, where he studied history, Chinese literature, and Japanese cinema. His essays, covering a broad range of political and cultural subjects, have appeared in publications including The New York Review of Books, The New Yorker, The New York Times, Il Corriere della Sera, and NRC Handelsblad. His most recent book is Year Zero: A History of 1945, which he worked on while a Fellow at the Cullman Center in 2011-2012.