The Friend (2018), the seventh novel of Sigrid Nunez, won the 2018 National Book Award for Fiction. It not only tells a touching story about the human-canine bond between the narrator and a huge Great Dane but also involves much meditation on writing as a profession and the universal concerns of humanity. Looking back at her writing career, Nunez talks about her beliefs as a writer, her observation of the contemporary literary scene, her evaluation of the status of fiction in the current era, her teaching experiences in writing programs, and her personal story as a child of immigrants and a former assistant to Susan Sontag. According to Nunez, a life of solitude is conducive to writing books, and experiences of frustration are normal for a writer. However, she maintains that writing should be seen as a vocation instead of a means of self-advancement. With respect to new trends in literary culture, Nunez believes the house of fiction does have many rooms, and the definition of a novel has become much broader.

中文翻译：

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西格丽德·努涅斯谈作家的生活

西格丽德·努涅斯的第七部小说《朋友》（2018 年）获得了 2018 年国家小说奖。它不仅讲述了叙述者与一只巨大的大丹犬之间人犬关系的感人故事，而且还涉及对写作作为一种职业和人类普遍关注的深思。回顾自己的写作生涯，努涅斯讲述了自己作为作家的信念、对当代文坛的观察、对当代小说地位的评价、写作节目的教学经历以及小时候的个人故事移民和苏珊桑塔格的前助手。在努涅斯看来，独处的生活有利于写作，经历挫折对作家来说是正常的。然而，她认为写作应该被视为一种职业，而不是一种自我提升的手段。对于文学文化的新趋势，努涅斯认为，小说之家确实有很多房间，小说的定义也变得更加广泛。