About this episode

The episode features a discussion on 'The Director' by Daniel Kehlmann, focusing on literary techniques and authorial intent.

Whitney Pinion, Risë Keller, and Gary McBride talk about The Director by Daniel Kehlmann, translated from the German by Ross Benjamin in 2025, which is Writers Who Read book number 79. Discussion slides for this novel and all novels discussed are available at WritersWhoRead.com . You can learn more about Literary Forensics here , and find the book at bookstores everywhere . In every episode we analyze and discuss one novel that has been published within the past 18-24 months. We do this because we are writers who read with intent–we read to study content and form and to uncover techniques that we can apply to our own writing. We read like writers, turning our favorite authors into our writing teachers. We do this through Literary Forensics , a set of tools that allow us to look beyond the surface of plot points, down into the tapestry of themes, contexts, and symbols that hold the very intentions of the author. We uncover why they wrote this novel and how they did it. If you'd like to join our LIVE! meetings in person, find upcoming novel titles and event registration information here and be sure to sign up for our monthly newsletter . Writers Who Read has been meeting in…

People in this episode

Host: Gary McBride

Guests: Whitney Pinion, Risë Keller

Topics covered

• literary analysis
• novel discussion
• writing techniques
• translation
• author intentions

Keywords

• Daniel Kehlmann
• The Director
• literary forensics
• writing techniques
• novel analysis

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Writers Who Read, Boulder Writers Alliance

Books & works: The Director

Places: Boulder, Colorado

More episodes of Writers Who Read

• Up Next: Atmosphere - Taylor Jenkins Reid · July 12, 2026 · 3 min
• Up Next: The Director - Daniel Kehlmann · June 14, 2026 · 3 min

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