Radar

The American writer on her film of the moment, a fantastic young novelist and an animated series that's wonderfully human.

Kuang is 26 and I just have a sense that it’s the beginning of a fantastic career. It says a lot of things about women and friendship, and other things too. [remastered version ](https://www.theguardian.com/games/2022/sep/06/pushing-buttons-the-last-of-us-part-1-remake-playstation-5)now, and though the [new TV adaptation](https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2023/jan/22/the-last-of-us-review-maternal-the-traitors-us-break-point) is brilliant, it does something that only a game can do. Season three came out recently and there’s an episode called The One Where Bertie Gets Eaten By a Snake, which is as good a meditation on the pandemic as I’ve seen. I don’t read a ton of fantasy, but I like this book because it’s really about language and the power that exists in the distance between a word and its translation. It’s about time and mistakes and missed opportunities, and it has one of the most poetic sections on infidelity that I’ve ever seen in a movie, capturing the romance of feeling like time is stopping when you’re in love, but also the narcissism of having an affair, the way other people around you cease to be quite real. I like that the book is angry and indignant. Zevin wrote the screenplay for Canosa’s 2005 film, [Conversations ](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2007/may/20/comedy.philipfrench) [With Other Women](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2007/may/20/comedy.philipfrench), and the pair adapted two of Zevin’s novels for the screen, most recently The Storied Life of AJ Fikry. I’m about the same age as the director and it feels as if the canvas of his life must look something like my own. [Lead singer] Stephin Merritt said it’s an album about love songs, not love, which is a really interesting distinction. This is a fantastic concept album featuring 69 love songs, all in different styles. [Gabrielle Zevin](https://www.theguardian.com/games/2022/sep/20/video-games-open-us-to-the-whole-spectrum-of-human-emotions-novelist-gabrielle-zevin-on-tomorrow-and-tomorrow-and-tomorrow), whose [Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow](https://www.theguardian.com/books/2022/jul/18/tomorrow-and-tomorrow-and-tomorrow-by-gabrielle-zevin-review-when-game-boy-meets-game-girl) appeared on many of 2022’s books of the year lists, was born in New York in 1977.