Top of page

Best of the National Book Festival: David Ignatius, 2018

Share this post:

Welcome to our ongoing celebration of the Library of Congress National Book Festival. Each weekday, we will feature a video presentation from among the thousands of authors who have appeared at the National Book Festival and as part of our new year-long series, National Book Festival Presents. Mondays will feature topical nonfiction; Tuesday: poetry or literary fiction; Wednesday: history, biography, memoir; Thursday: popular fiction; and Friday: authors who write for children and teens. Please enjoy, and make sure to explore our full National Book Festival video collection!

Washington Post columnist and associate editor David Ignatius came to the Genre Fiction stage of the 2018 Library of Congress National Book Festival not to talk about some political figure or important person from history, but to discuss his latest thriller, “The Quantum Spy,” about the race between America and China to build a quantum computer. He was interviewed by his colleague Stephanie Merry, editor of The Post’s Book World.

Ignatius begins by talking about his inspiration for the book; he quotes Nobel Prize-winning physicist Richard Feynmen, “‘If you think you understand quantum mechanics, you don’t understand quantum mechanics.’” Q&A begins at 30:15.

The 2020 Library of Congress National Book Festival will celebrate its 20th birthday this year. You can get up-to-the-minute news, schedule updates and other important festival information by subscribing to this blog. The festival is made possible by the generosity of sponsors. You too can support the festival by making a gift now.