★ A Profound Conversation with Global Literary Masters: Independent cultural journalist and interviewer Bailin engages in deep intellectual exchanges with 22 top-tier global authors, including Nobel laureates Peter Handke and Olga Tokarczuk, as well as literary giant Martin Walser.
★ A Cross-Cultural Journey of Critical Thinking: Moving from literature to the era, this book offers a profound East-West conversation. Bailin's questions bypass trivial details of writers' personal lives. Adopting the perspective of an "outsider within," she asks the world, "How do writers perceive and intervene in this world?" She tackles core propositions such as how literature responds to the times and how writers define their social responsibilities, providing global readers with a precious sample for understanding the clash of Eastern and Western thoughts.
★ A Feast for Both Literature Lovers and Intellectual Readers: Beyond literary creation, the book delves into deeply resonant global issues such as the European spirit, globalization, identity, and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
★ Acclaimed by Readers: Rated 8.5/10 on Douban! Filled with profound insights and memorable quotes, readers have praised it as a deep work where "every passage is worth reading over and over again."

Sip coffee with Amos Oz, step into Svetlana Alexievich's "Secondhand Time," unmask Peter Handke's performative authorship, and explore the mythic "small self" in Olga Tokarczuk's works.

Twenty-two incisive dialogues — sharpened by Bai Lin's pen — span five continents, weaving geography and figures into a thematic unity: Europe's evolving spirit, faith in the modern age, new travel writing, globalization debates, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and more. Each subject stands alone yet interconnects, offering a lens to examine our world's "why."

Bai Lin
An independent cultural journalist and young writer, Bailin has interviewed nearly 120 cultural figures both domestically and internationally. She currently serves as a specially appointed part-time researcher at the Center for Balkan Studies at Beijing Foreign Studies University.
Selected Works:
Conversations with Western Literature, The Temptation of Borders: In Search of Yugoslavia, Ruin is a Bridge: The Past and Present of the Balkans, Living in Literature, and more.

Foreword
Martin Walser
Navid Kermani
Saša Stanišić
Maria Stepanova
Svetlana Alexievich
Orhan Pamuk
Amos Oz
David Szalay
Geoff Dyer
Colin Barrett
Azar Nafisi
Peter Handke
Mariás Bella
Olga Tokarczuk
Mikhail Popov
David Grossmann
Etgar Keret
Boualem Sansal
Vincent Message
Marilynne Robinson
Michael Chabon
Martín Caparrós
Appendix