Podcasts about edbookfest

Glasgow in den 1980er Jahren: Der einstige Wirtschaftsstandort leidet unter den Reformbemühungen der Thatcher-Regierung und ist geprägt von Arbeitslosigkeit, Armut und moralischem Verfall. Der sechsjährige Shuggie lebt mit seinen beiden Geschwistern, seinem Macho-Vater "Big Shug" und der alkoholkranken Mutter Agnes auf engstem Raum. Als erst der Vater, später dann auch die Geschwister die Familie verlassen, wird Shuggie der letzte Anker für seine Mutter. Aufopferungsvoll und mit unbändigem Optimismus kämpft er für sie einen bereits verlorenen Kampf. Dabei ringt er um seine eigene Identität und sieht sich als feinfühliger und empathischer Junge einer toxisch-männlichen Umwelt gegenüber. Stuart erzählt in opulenter Sprache eine triste und abgründige Geschichte, die einen in die dunklen Tiefen des Mensch-Seins hinabzieht. Warum man am Ende doch gestärkt aus der Lektüre hervorgeht und trotz allem niemals den Glauben an die Kraft von Liebe und Hoffnung verliert, erfahrt ihr in dieser Folge! Shownotes und Links: Douglas Stuarts Roman "Shuggie Bain" bei Hanser Berlin Autorenseite von Douglas Stuart bei Hanser Berlin Matthew Schneier: "Shuggie Bain Makes it Out" (Vulture, 10. November 2020) "Douglas Stuart: The Making of 'Shuggie Bain'" (edBookFest, YouTube) "Auf ein Buch!" bei Spotify "Auf ein Buch!" bei Instagram Blog zu "Auf ein Buch!"

In May 2019, Jokha Alharthi became the first Arabic language writer to win the Man Booker International Prize for her searing novel Celestial Bodies. She also became the first female Omani novelist to be translated into English thanks to Marilyn Booth, with whom she shares the prize. Alharthi joins the Edinburgh International Book Festival in 2019 to discuss her path to success as well this work of incredible depth, which follows the lives of three sisters in the village of al-Awafi through heartbreak, marriage and duty with tenderness and subtlety. Expect to hear an enlightening introduction to Omani literature and celebration of international ideas chaired by Fiammetta Rocco.

Warnings of looming environmental catastrophe rain down on us with increasing frequency, and only the most ardent climate change sceptics deny we live at a crucial point for the Earth's future. Join sustainability expert Mike Berners-Lee in a live conversation with WWF’s Tanya Steele at the Edinburgh International Book Festival 2019, as he cuts through the noise with practical advice on how we can avoid calamity, drawn from his book There is No Planet B, a ‘Handbook for the Make or Break Years’.

In a pair of moving memoirs, Guyana-born Canadian writer Tessa McWatt and Zeba Talkhani, who was raised in Saudi Arabia, explore themes of race, feminism, heritage and belonging. McWatt’s Shame On Me is a journey through the multiple threads of her identity. In My Past Is a Foreign Country, Talkhani charts her experiences as a British Muslim feminist with nuance and generosity. They come together at the Edinburgh International Book Festival 2019 to share their stories in an event chaired by Nadine Aisha Jassat.

While the realities of climate change are not always visible, the realisation that our grandchildren will live in troubled times can catalyse action. After becoming a grandmother, former Irish president and UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Mary Robinson travelled the world to learn about the fight back. In her book Climate Justice, she describes the people working to overcome the threat. In a live event at the Edinburgh International Book Festival 2019 she shares her hopeful account in conversation with Ruth Wishart.

Whenever the latest dieting fad comes along, those promoting new theories are well fed on the proceeds, while many people trying to shed pounds are left wondering why nothing seems to work. Meet Giles Yeo, geneticist and presenter on BBC’s Trust Me, I’m a Doctor, who has spent 20 years researching the brain’s relationship to food intake. In his book Gene Eating, he describes his work and why he’s determined to break this cycle. Hear all about it in this live recording from the Edinburgh International Book Festival 2019 chaired by Ruth Wishart.

‘Heartbreaking stories of heroism’ set against a backdrop of ‘political cynicism and scientific ignorance'. That’s how judges described the winner of 2018's Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-Fiction – Serhii Plokhy’s Chernobyl: History of a Tragedy. The Harvard history professor and expert on the 1986 nuclear disaster presents a specially commissioned paper linking Chernobyl to the demise of the Soviet Union. Hear him shed light on the incredible book in a live event at the Edinburgh International Book Festival 2019 chaired by James Crawford.

‘It’s official. We’ve fallen (back) in love with poetry’ the Metro declared earlier this year, reporting a 12% increase in poetry book sales in 2018. Underpinning the boom are bold new voices exploring issues from politics to mental health on page, stage and social media. Three of the most exciting new talents – Charly Cox, Theresa Lola and Tayi Tibble – perform from their well-received debut collections at the Edinburgh International Book Festival 2019 in an event chaired by fellow poet Becky Fincham.

Meet two British writers of cleverly conceived and suspenseful stories, Louise Doughty and Stuart Turton, who come together to talk about their new novels at the Edinburgh International Book Festival 2019. The Seven Deaths Of Evelyn Hardcastle, Turton’s 2018 Costa First Novel Award-winning debut, sees its central character killed afresh daily until her would-be saviour tries to solve the riddle. Doughty, author of the hugely successful Apple Tree Yard, talks about Platform Seven, which has her protagonist trying to prevent people taking their own lives at a railway station. Their conversation is chaired by Lee Randall.

The modern world can make us feel like the walls are closing in, but a vanguard of writers are here to help us cope – and none more so than Matt Haig. After the storming success of Reasons to Stay Alive comes Notes on a Nervous Planet, a wise and witty guide to kicking the habits around everything from sleep to social media to work that are making us less happy. Enjoy an hour of conversation at the Edinburgh International Book Festival 2019 that will soothe your 21st century anxieties. Chaired by Lennie Goodings.

Meet two authors chronicling the off-kilter experiences of upbeat millennials. Candice Carty-Williams’s novel Queenie sees a Jamaican British woman search for identity. Jojo Moyes called it ‘brilliant, timely, funny, heartbreaking’. Annaleese Jochems’s classy debut Baby made waves back home: fellow New Zealander Eleanor Catton called it ‘sultry, sinister, hilarious and demented’. Their lively conversation at the Edinburgh International Book Festival 2019 is chaired by Sasha de Buyl-Pisco.

It’s clear that antisemitism remains a problem for British society. But recent headlines have brought more confusion than clarity in debates about the definition of what is understood by the word ‘antisemitic’. Westminster peer and West London Synagogue’s Senior Rabbi Julia Neuberger makes a vital intervention with her book Antisemitism, a succinct study of where it comes from and what it is now. She shares her expertise in a lively conversation with Richard Holloway at the Edinburgh International Book Festival 2019.

Joint winner of the 2009 Nobel Prize for Chemistry, Venki Ramakrishnan’s work has gone past the whys and wherefores of DNA and on to the ribosome, the structure which helps decode our genetic make-up. In a live event at the Edinburgh International Book Festival 2019 the President of The Royal Society and Gene Machine author shares stories about his first uncertain experiments and making genuine scientific breakthroughs. An enlightening hour of conversation with Steve Brusatte.

The vile practice of upskirting wasn’t an offence in Britain until activist Gina Martin came along. With no legal or political background, Martin changed the law within 18 months. Now, she wants to help others do the same. Be the Change is a campaigning handbook written to advise and empower. Listen to an inspiring force of nature live at the Edinburgh International Book Festival 2019 in conversation with Heather Parry and learn how to follow in her footsteps.

The Booker Prize-winning Australian author of Schindler’s Ark, Thomas Keneally comes to the Edinburgh International Book Festival 2019 having woven another masterpiece in The Book of Science and Antiquities. Ancient human remains are found in Western Australia, causing controversy: was the man Aboriginal, or does he signify an even older culture? Documentary maker Shelby investigates, sure that ‘Learned Man’ connects the planet’s earliest inhabitants with our troubled environmental future. Hear Keneally discuss the novel live with Lesley McDowell.

One of Britain's best loved poets, Lemn Sissay is a performer of rare passion. But growing up with foster families and in care homes, Sissay struggled with his identity. The discovery of his birth name and Ethiopian background is the catalyst for reflection in his memoir My Name is Why. At the Edinburgh International Book Festival 2019 he meditates on home and identity as he discusses his insightful book with Jenny Lindsay, exuding the creative energy that's made him a literary phenomenon.

Spend an hour with master of suspense Stuart MacBride as he introduces his latest dark, thrilling novel at the Edinburgh International Book Festival 2019 in conversation with Lee Randall. With the nation at boiling point, someone’s sending messages in blood. Inspector Logan Macrae is back after a year off, but there’s no rest when a high-profile anti-Independence campaigner disappears amid growing tensions between those fighting for Scotland’s future. Can Logan survive in the cauldron of Scottish politics?

Returning to our roots can be tough, revealing and, as Tracey Thorn discovers, inspiring. The singer-songwriter behind Everything But The Girl follows up her bestselling Bedsit Disco Queen by writing Another Planet, a wonderfully witty walk through the maligned suburbia of her youth. At the Edinburgh International Book Festival 2019 Thorn shares hilarious recollections of the physical and emotional cul-de-sacs of her Green Belt upbringing and its lasting impact with Serena Field.

We all occasionally do things that are racist, yet often fail to recognise them. Ibram X Kendi is a founding director of the Antiracist Research and Policy Center in Washington DC. How To Be an Antiracist is his extraordinary, inspiring guidebook which helps build a vital new understanding of racism – and how to work against it. As part of the Edinburgh International Book Festival 2019 this superb teacher and storyteller talks to educator and activist DeRay Mckesson, a key figure in the Black Lives Matter movement.

The publishing world is finally waking up to the barriers that have prevented working class voices from being heard in books. Kit de Waal grew up in Birmingham’s Irish community and she has successfully broken into the mainstream with two highly acclaimed novels. At the Edinburgh International Book Festival 2019 she talks to Damian Barr about Common People, her book of essays by working class writers, featuring coruscating pieces by authors including Barr himself.

To celebrate Tim Winton’s first visit to the Edinburgh International Book Festival since 1993, he looks back over an oeuvre that includes classics such as Dirt Music, Cloudstreet and Breath, live in conversation with John Williams, Daily Books editor and writer for The New York Times. Plus, hear them examine his latest masterful work The Shepherd’s Hut in which a lonely boy attempts to cross the vast saltland deserts of Western Australia.

The Edinburgh International Book Festival was thrilled to welcome back Fatima Bhutto in 2019 to discuss her second novel The Runaways with Roanna Gonsalves. Published against the backdrop of the Shamima Begum controversy, Bhutto’s novel could hardly feel more topical: set between Portsmouth and Karachi, it charts the lives of three vividly drawn characters from contrasting backgrounds, offering compelling reasons why jihadis are able to lure rootless, marginalised people into terrorism.

Among our finest crime writers and funniest speakers, Chris Brookmyre is back with one of his best stories yet. He talks to Brian Taylor live at the Edinburgh International Book Festival 2019 about his new standalone thriller Fallen Angel. Sixteen years on from the death of young Niamh on a holiday in Portugal, the glamorous Temple clan hold a fateful family reunion. For Amanda, a neighbouring nanny, fascination gives way to suspicion – what did happen to the girl?

At the Edinburgh International Book Festival 2019 Arundhati Roy discusses her works and her astonishing experiences with Scotland’s First Minister, Nicola Sturgeon. What did she do between the publication of her Booker-winning debut The God of Small Things in 1997 and her extraordinary follow-up, The Ministry of Utmost Happiness two decades later? In a stunning new book of essays, we have the definitive answer. My Seditious Heart is much more than a series of illuminating observations on justice, rights and freedoms: it’s a memoir of the Indian author’s life – as a writer and as a citizen.

Footballer Mark Walters is remembered for his wing wizardry, but while he’s revered by the Rangers faithful who cheered him for four trophy-laden years, he also endured racist chants – an issue he campaigns against now. At the Edinburgh International Book Festival 2019 Walters talks to Pat Nevin about new memoir Wingin’ It, working for Graeme Souness, great moments at Liverpool and Aston Villa, and his views about the modern game.

Thirteen years since his multi-million bestseller The Book Thief, Markus Zusak joins us at the Edinburgh International Book Festival 2019 with his much-anticipated follow-up, Bridge of Clay. In a conversation with author and presenter Janet Ellis, Zusak discusses his ambitious portrait of a family, introducing us to the Dunbar brothers, who are living and fighting in a house with no parents, and no rules. To find peace and beauty, one brother, Clay, sets out to build a bridge, unaware of the secrets he will uncover.

One of the most significant writers of our age, Salman Rushdie joins the Edinburgh International Book Festival 2019 for the worldwide launch of epic novel Quichotte. Veering from wildly comic to heartbreaking, Rushdie discusses his playful retelling of Don Quixote with James Naughtie. Set in present day USA, ageing salesman Quichotte embarks on a quest for love in his Chevy Cruze, driving with his imaginary son Sancho through a country on the brink of moral collapse.

Called ‘extraordinary’ and ‘electrifying’ by Marlon James and Colm Tóibín, Texan writer Casey Gerald’s powerful memoir traces fault lines in American racial and masculine identity. There Will Be No Miracles Here examines how Gerald grew up underprivileged, black and gay in Dallas but went on to study at Yale and Harvard, and work on Wall Street. It’s an American Dream story; so why does he spurn the classic rags-to-riches narrative? Live at the Edinburgh International Book Festival 2019 he shares his thoughts with educator and Black Lives Matter activist DeRay Mckesson.

In conversation with Sally Magnusson, award-winning feminist campaigner and writer Caroline Criado Perez exposes the hidden systematic discrimination women face every day. Invisible Women is her clarion call for change, bringing together new research and stories revealing the gender data gap; a lack of knowledge which has created unseen bias against women everywhere from public policy to technology, business and the media. This event was recorded live at the Edinburgh International Book Festival 2019.

In his early novels City of Bohane and Beatlebone as well as his short stories, Kevin Barry showed clear signs of his prodigious talent as a writer. But the Booker Prize-longlisted Night Boat to Tangier is his best book yet – a modest masterpiece of a novel dripping with tenderness, remorse and laconic humour. Join Barry live at the Edinburgh International Book Festival 2019 with Peggy Hughes to hear about his two fading but irresistible Irish gangsters trying to piece together the shards of their shattered lives.

If The Great British Bake Off is your first encounter with Prue Leith, you’ve missed a great deal. Founder of Leith’s School of Food and Wine, restaurateur, journalist, novelist and now TV judge – she is one of the nation’s most respected foodies. Live at the Edinburgh International Book Festival 2019 Leith introduces her first recipe book for 25 years, Prue: My All-Time Favourite Recipes, and shares suppers, showstoppers, and the personal stories behind her recipes with Sue Lawrence.

GENDER POLITICS When Harriet Harman was elected in 1982, she notes in her memoir A Woman’s Work, the House of Commons was 97% male. Since then, she has led the way on all-women shortlists, introduced laws on equality and domestic violence and has twice become Labour’s Acting Leader. Come and meet a feminist politician who has made a real difference. Chaired by Ruth Wishart. Part of our This Woman Can series of events.

PHENOMENAL WOMEN SPEAK OUT While comedy still struggles with gender equality, the spoken word scene is well used to its biggest, most exciting exports being female. Following in the footsteps of Kate Tempest and Hollie McNish, we bring you some of the most exciting new talents in spoken word. Jemima Foxtrot, Iona Lee, Sabrina Mahfouz and Sophia Walker perform their work relating to (and not relating to) themes of womanhood. Chaired by Becky Fincham. Part of our Babble On - Spoken Word series of events.

DOCTOR IN THE HOUSE? Working a 97 hour week doesn’t sound much fun for anyone, but when we’re talking about an NHS doctor, such a schedule could become a matter of life and death. In This is Going to Hurt, comedian and ex-junior doctor Adam Kay reflects on the often horrific conditions he was working under and what finally happened to make him hang up the white coat. Chaired by Lee Randall. Part of our Mind and Body series of events.

CRIME FOR THE MASSES Just what does it take to write a page-turning bestselling crime novel? Dumbarton-born, Aberdeen-raised Stuart MacBride can offer plenty of advice on that front, given his Logan McRae series keeps on hitting the heights of popularity. Fellow writer Stephanie Merritt joins him to delve into The Blood Road, his 11th Logan mystery, out now. It’s time to get on board and see what the fuss is about.

WHAT'S A WOMAN FOR? Fans of Naomi Alderman’s The Power will appreciate these ambitious political novels about women defying restrictions. Sophie Mackintosh’s The Water Cure centres on three women raised in total isolation and the men who come to find them. Leni Zumas’s Red Clocks sees four women drawn together in resistance in an imagined America where abortion is illegal and a new law grants property rights to every embryo. Vote for The Water Cure by Sophie Mackintosh in the First Book Award.

CELLOS BY THE SEASIDE Fans of Patrick Gale, and of Rough Music in particular, will be thrilled to learn that he launches his 16th novel, Take Nothing With You, in this conversation with Eleanor Updale. The story of a 50-something gay Londoner undergoing radiation therapy, remembering his eccentric 1970s childhood in Weston-super-Mare and a life-changing recital by a glamorous cellist is described by Gale as ‘a comedy of resilience and survival’.

STANDING UP FOR JUSTICE Gina Miller came to prominence when she successfully took the British government to the Supreme Court, challenging its authority to trigger Article 50, the formal notification to leave the EU, without parliamentary approval. Guyana-born Miller became the target of racist and sexist abuse, and physical threats. Rise is an unflinching account of what it means to stand up for justice, and for yourself, no matter what the cost. She discusses her book and why she felt compelled to write it with Ruth Wishart. Part of our Freedom and Equality series of events.

EPIC POETIC TALENT A captivating hour with award-winning playwright and poet Inua Ellams as he performs selections from his 2017 Ted Hughes Award shortlisted work #Afterhours. His residency at the Southbank Poetry Library took him on a voyage through time and place to the heart of the library’s archive and through his own life story, selecting and responding to poems published during each of the first 18 years of his life. Part of our Babble On - Spoken Word series of events.

ALL IT TAKES IS FAITH Considered by many to be one of America’s great literary voices, National Book Award winner and Pulitzer Prize finalist Richard Powers presents The Overstory, his seductive and beguiling new novel of interlocking stories. Neil Griffiths’s first book won awards, his second was shortlisted for the Costa Best Novel; today he discusses his third, As a God Might Be, a Guardian Book of the Week hailed as ‘an ambitious, generous novel about the limits of faith and love.’

2018 MAN BOOKER SHORTLISTED LA NOIR A renowned poet whose work often hauntingly evokes the lives of Scottish outsiders, and a mesmerising reader of his own work, Robin Robertson strikes out with a breathtaking new project, The Long Take. In this verse novel, Walker is a war veteran from Nova Scotia who sets out for Los Angeles in 1948. Robertson’s book demonstrates the origins of ‘noir’, presented here with period filmic and musical accompaniment. Robertson has won multiple prestigious awards for his writing and is regarded as one of Scotland’s finest poets. He has been longlisted for the 2018 Man Booker Prize for The Long Take – about which the judges said: ‘it’s an extraordinary evocation of the debris and the ongoing destruction of war even in times of peace. Robin Robertson shows the flexibility a poet can bring to form and style.’ Come and meet a writer at the height of his powers.

LIFE AMONG LIFERS Rachel Kushner’s much-anticipated follow-up novel to the dazzlingly successful The Flamethrowers is The Mars Room, a fearless and brutally honest portrayal of Romy, a woman starting a double life sentence in a US correctional facility, leaving her young son with her mother. We welcome Kushner back to Edinburgh to discuss her latest book with American-Mexican novelist and human rights activist Jennifer Clement.

MY BLACK AND DEEP DESIRES A former footballer, financial analyst and the lead singer of a chart-topping band in his homeland, Norway’s Jo Nesbo struck gold with the crime-writing career which has made his name. His latest bestseller, Macbeth, is a fresh take on Shakespeare’s ‘Scottish play’, relocating it to a police department where Inspector Macbeth is plagued by paranoia.

POETRY OF NOVEL WRITING The Sunday Times called him ‘One of our most sensitive and stylish writers’ and with his latest book, The Executor, it’s easy to see why. The bestselling novelist and poet Blake Morrison has created a biting portrait of male friendship, sexual obsession and the fragile transactions of married life, innovatively interweaving poetry and prose to form a gripping literary detective story. Enjoy an hour in the company of this award-winning writer. Chaired by Jackie McGlone.

RUSSIA’S AVANT-GARDE FREEDOM FIGHTERS 'To back down an inch is to give up a mile,' says Maria Alyokhina in Riot Days, her account of Pussy Riot’s extraordinary rise to infamy in 2012. Following an iconoclastic balaclava-clad performance in a Moscow cathedral, Alyokhina and two of her collaborators were arrested and sentenced to two years in a prison in the Urals. In this unmissable event, Yanis Varoufakis, DiEM25’s co-founder, discusses with Maria Alyokhina the different varieties of totalitarianism that we are currently threatened with, her fight for free speech against the forces of Vladimir Putin’s regime, her hunger strike protest while in prison, as well as the work she is now doing to help Russian prisoners at home. Part of our Killing Democracy? series of events.

NOT-SO-SWEET DREAMS Jasper Fforde has spent years on the bestseller lists with his Thursday Next books. Now he’s written a standalone novel, Early Riser, creating a world where all humans hibernate except for the Winter Consuls. Fforde’s ability to write alternative worlds with the telling detail of a J K Rowling or Terry Pratchett, coupled with his unabashed silliness and cleverly imagined characters, have won him a well-deserved following.

A GUIDE FOR LIVING Laughter is the best medicine, so thankfully comedian Ruby Wax has penned a witty follow-up to her bestselling book A Mindfulness Guide for the Frazzled, designed to help us live well. Armed with a degree in Mindfulness-based Cognitive Therapy and a knack for hilarity, today Wax discusses How to Be Human: The Manual and her tips for having a healthy mind in a world where new equals best and keeping up is tough. Chaired by Jackie McGlone. Part of our Mind and Body series of events.

A Tribute to Muriel Spark We're celebrating Muriel Spark’s centenary year with a series of tributes to the great Scottish writer. In this, our opening event, Janice Galloway, the internationally-acclaimed Scottish author of novels, short stories, poetry and non-fiction (and more besides), presents Spark’s writing and ideas, encouraging us to ‘hear’ the voice of Spark by reading selections from her most evocative works. Chaired by Jenny Niven. Part of our Muriel Spark 100 series of events.

Stravaigin in Saint-Louis The Scot who came to international attention when His Bloody Project was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize, Graeme Macrae Burnet has followed up that astonishing success with an elegant and evocative thriller The Accident on the A35. Set in a sleepy town in southern France, it’s a sophisticated mystery that evokes Maigret, Camus and perhaps a whiff of James Hogg. Chaired by Jane Fowler.

TO CHANGE IS HUMAN Following the resounding success of the bestselling Adventures in Human Being, Edinburgh-based GP and writer Gavin Francis turns his attention to Shapeshifters or more specifically, the ways in which human bodies are transformed throughout a lifetime. Changes happen in many different contexts: ageing, transgender journeys and plastic surgery being some topical examples that Francis analyses in his new book. Chaired by Allan Little. Part of our Mind and Body series of events.