This year’s Edinburgh International Book Festival, which begins tomorrow, has an exhaustive list of literary minds coming together for a wide range of intriguing programs. From the icons Kazuo Ishiguro and Carol Ann Duffy, to debutants Natasha Brown and Douglas Stuart, from talks on historical fiction to children’s literature, there is something for every kind of literature enthusiast. So, we’ve put together a list of authors Platform has had the privilege of featuring, who will be participating in the festival this year, so that you can catch-up on their interviews with us before watching them speak and discuss their work live.
Natasha Brown
How do we manage the carefully assembled pieces of our lives, and what happens when events out of our control leave us exposed? These questions seem to haunt Natasha Brown’s Assembly. In Natasha Brown’s blistering debut Assembly, the novel’s narrator is an unnamed Black British woman who has been navigating class, race, freedom, the myths of meritocracy when everything threatens to come apart. Hear her discuss captivating stories of 21st century life and womanhood, alongside author Olivia Sudjic.
Link to our interview: https://www.platform-mag.com/literature/assembly.html
Link to the event: https://www.edbookfest.co.uk/the-festival/whats-on/natasha-brown-olivia-sudjic-unravelling-lives
Sonia Faleiro
In a village in Uttar Pradesh, North India, two teenage girls go missing and are later discovered hanging from a tree. What happened and why did they die? And why on earth do the grieving women of the village form a circle round the tree trunk to prevent the girls from being taken down? Sonia Faleiro’s The Good Girls is a deeply affecting account of events in rural India, and a searing analysis of family honour in the community. Watch her discuss the country’s fascinating moral complexities in this program.
Link to our interview: https://www.platform-mag.com/literature/sonia-faleiro.html
Link to the event: https://www.edbookfest.co.uk/the-festival/whats-on/sonia-faleiro-megha-majumdar-outrages-in-india
Hari Kunzru
Since Hari Kunzru’s last appearance at the Book Festival in 2017, the world has witnessed a dramatic quickening of social division in the United States, fuelled in part by internet conspiracies and communities. Kunzru makes his long-awaited return to discuss Red Pill, a novel of ideas that takes place in the run-up to the American presidential elections of 2016 and traces the rise of the alt-right, its propagation through online culture and the dark web.
Link to our interview: https://www.platform-mag.com/literature/hari-kunzru.html
Link to the event: https://www.edbookfest.co.uk/the-festival/whats-on/hari-kunzru-the-breakdown-of-truth
Douglas Stuart
Douglas Stuart’s life was turned upside down when his debut novel Shuggie Bain was declared winner of the 2020 Booker Prize. Overnight, the New York-based fashion designer, who grew up in Glasgow, became an international literary bestseller. Scotland’s latest Booker winner is now going back to his home country for the first time since winning his award, for what will be his first live, in-person discussion about the book that has won a million readers’ hearts.
Link to our interview: https://www.platform-mag.com/literature/douglas-stuart.html
Link to the event: https://www.edbookfest.co.uk/the-festival/whats-on/douglas-stuart-with-nicola-sturgeon-welcome-home-shuggie-bain
Date 13-08-2021