On October 10, 1995, London’s Royal Festival Hall hosted a historic night of readings by three of the world’s most distinguished writers: Umberto Eco from Italy, British-Indian Salman Rushdie and Mario Vargas Llosa of Peru. At dinner afterward, Eco anointed the trio as The Three Musketeers. On Friday May 2, 2008, over 12 years later, the PEN World Voices Festival, in collaboration with the 92nd Street Y Unterberg Poetry Center, presented The Three Musketeers together again for one unforgettable evening. Each writer did a reading from one of their works, followed by a group discussion moderated by Leonard Lopate. You can listen to audio and browse pictures from the night on the PEN American Center website.

Here’s an excerpt of a review from the Edrants blog:

Finally the three sat with the moderator, Leonard Lopate. Lopate himself didn’t have to do very much; with the slightest prodding the three would go off on tangents about writing, language, politics or anything else…

[The] event was amazing. The three authors offered fascinating outsider takes on America and literature, and I think we need more of this type of event. Other mass-media events where authors are interviewed, such as The Charlie Rose Show or NPR, are always more structured and hindered by time constraints. Having three people like this capable of conversing with each other and talking freely about a range of topics was both refreshing and fascinating.

More blogger reviews can be found here and here.

Related: Discovery/Boston Review Poetry Contest Winners read tonight at the Y and now is the time to sign up for summer writing workshops taught by acclaimed writers Rachel Hadas, Emily Fragos, Sigrid Nunez and Myla Goldberg.