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Ken Langer

Goodreads Author

Born

New York, The United States

Website

https://kenlanger.net

Genre

Fiction, Thriller, Suspense

Member Since

December 2013

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Ken Langer’s love of India began in 1971, when he spent an academic year in Varanasi. He earned his Ph.D. in Sanskrit and Indian Studies from Harvard University in 1978 and spent two years in Pune as a postdoctoral Fellow of the American Institute of Indian Studies. After leaving Sanskrit studies, Ken served as Special Assistant to the Dean of Harvard University, Vice President of Brandeis University, and consultant to the U.S. Department of Energy and U.S. Agency for International Development. In 2002, he founded EMSI, an international green building consulting company, with projects in the U.S., the Middle East, and Asia. His short stories, essays, book reviews, and academic articles have appeared in the Harvard Review, The Satirist, The ...more

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Ken Langer’s books

Average rating: 4.4 · 20 ratings · 14 reviews · 1 distinct work

A Nest for Lalita

4.40 avg rating — 20 ratings — 3 editions

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Ken Langer's Blog

Anne Frank and Me: Two Camps

“Dear Mom and Dad, I am still having a GREAt time.”

Like a refrain that echoes throughout a song or poem, these words begin almost all of the letters I wrote to my parents in 1961 and 1962 from Camp Walt Whitman in Pike, New Hampshire. The missives were stashed away in a box I unearthed from the bowls of my mother’s basement after she died. Now, three years later, I’m reading through the them –

Ken is Currently Reading

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The Story of Lucy Gault

by William Trevor

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Jan 08, 2026 05:47PM

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Ken Langer liked Julie Bedore's review of The Queen of Dirt Island: "Donal Ryan wrote "The Spinning Heart", a classic of Irish literature, a book that created an audience for his work. Since then, he has shuffled out a book a year to keep the cash flowing. His latest, "The Queen of Dirt Island" is not only a terrible " Read more of this review »
May 12, 2026 06:11PM · see review · preview book See a Problem? We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of The Queen of Dirt Island by Donal Ryan. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — The Queen of Dirt Island by Donal Ryan <iframe sandbox id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">
Ken Langer is now following Violet wells's reviews
Jan 08, 2026 05:58PM · like
Ken Langer made a comment on Violet wells’s review of The Story of Lucy Gault " Violet, I agree with everything you've said. And, the premise of the story is absurd. What parent whose child goes missing would not leave a forwardin ...more "
Jan 08, 2026 05:54PM · see review
Ken Langer and 55 other people liked Violet wells's review of The Story of Lucy Gault: "The four books of William Trevor's I've read were written respectively in 1991, 1994, 1996 and, this one, 2002 which means he was in his sixties or seventies and probably past his prime. And not surprisingly perhaps why he seems a writer completely o" Read more of this review »
Jan 08, 2026 05:48PM · see review · preview book See a Problem? We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of The Story of Lucy Gault by William Trevor. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — The Story of Lucy Gault by William Trevor <iframe sandbox id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">
Ken Langer rated a book did not like it The Story of Lucy Gault by William Trevor	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Jan 08, 2026 05:48PM · like · preview book See a Problem? We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of The Story of Lucy Gault by William Trevor. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — The Story of Lucy Gault by William Trevor <iframe sandbox id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">

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Ken’s Quotes

“O baffled, baulked, bent to the very earth, Oppressed with myself that I have dared to open my mouth, Aware now that, amid all the blab whose echoes recoil upon me, I have not once had the least idea who or what I am, But that before all my insolent poems, the real ME stands yet untouched, untold, altogether unreached, Withdrawn”
― Walt Whitman, Whitman: Poems

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