£1.4m


BRITISH WRITERS ON BREXIT


Nothing compares to EU


The over-three-years-in- the-making Brexit drama seems to be nearing its endgame, but even at this late hour, nothing much is set in stone (besides the intractability on all sides of the argument). Backgrounded by daily


constitutional crises and ructions in the House of


Today, 12 p.m.


? Guest of Honour Pavilion, Main Stage (Forum, Level 1 )


OSLO & BERGEN: FAVOURITE PLACES


Inter-city celebration as two Norwegians collide


O


slo versus Bergen is a sort of heated New York/Boston, Dublin/Cork, London/Birmigham-style rivalry in


which the ire is mostly, to be frank, felt in the citizens of the second city, who look some- what enviously at its more populous neigh- bour. But Norway’s two biggest urban areas have much in common, and should celebrate both their similarities and what makes them each unique. That, anyway, is the basis for a conversation between a favourite son from each municipality: flying the flag for the capital is the award-winning novelist and poet Lars Saabye Christensen, while Bergen is repped by crime star Gunnar Staalesen. Both authors have written extensively about their home cities, with Staalesen setting all 20 books featuring kick-ass private eye Varg Veum (above, as played on-screen by Trond Espen Seim) in Bergen. Saabye Christensen was born in the Skillebekk section of Oslo, and though he now lives in Sortland, a small town above the Arctic Circle, most of his books are set in the capital.


JON KLASSEN & MAC BARNETT


Return of the Mac as Jon joins US writer


Today, 10 a.m. ? English Theatre


Commons, what Britain’s future relationship with the European Union will look like is still a very big question mark. Trying


to parse out what Brexit means for the country, its people and the publishing and writing community are a trio of UK-based


writers: Bonnie Greer, the Chicago-born novelist,


playwright and critic who became a naturalised UK citizen in the late 1990s; poet, novelist and Oxford don Patrick McGuinness; and Belfast-based author Jan Carson, whose The Firestarters won the EU Prize for Literature (Ireland) this year.


Today, 1.30 p.m.


? Weltempfang Stage, Hall 4.1, B81


Today, 4 p.m. T ? Frankfurt Pavilion, Agora


he “back end” of The Bookseller Daily editions are prepared around a week in advance, so


at this writing it is not known if the London-based Turkish novelist Elif Shafak won the Booker Prize on 14th October for her 11th novel, 10 Minutes 38 Seconds in this Strange World. It will be no surprise if she has, as she is one of world literature’s most lauded authors, winning a raft of prizes in her native Turkey and a French Chevalier des Artes et Lettres, as well as racking up a slew of shortlistings and


One of the biggest draws in the children’s stream this FBF will be the visit of US author Mac Barnet and Canadian author/illustrator Jon Klassen. They have collaborated on seven picture books, including Caldecot Medal-shortlisted Extra Yarn and the 2019 trilogy Square, Triangle and Circle. The collaborations with Klassen aside, Barnet has writen extensively across Middle Grade and


picture books, including the Terrible Two series (with Jory John and illustrator Kevin Cornell) and the crime caper Brixton Boys books. (And fun fact: at Pomona College, Barnet was taught creative writing by David Foster Wallace). Former animator Klassen won the Caldecot in 2013 for I Want My Hat Back, his first book as a solo author/illustrator. The three books in his “hat” series, all writ- ten for Walker/Candlewick, have been translated into 22 languages to date.


TheBookseller.com


OFFBEAT STYLE HAS WON HIM A LEGION OF FANS


JON KLASSEN’S 15


longlistings for just about every major award under the sun. Shafak is also a committed activist,


speaking out frequently for women’s rights and against Turkey’s long- standing anti-free speech measures; as a result, she has been subjected to harassment from president Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s government. Her Booker-shortlisted novel tackles some of the issues she campaigns for: it is a reflection on violence against women, centring around a sex worker who is murdered and left in a wheelie bin on the outskirts of Istanbul, who then thinks back over her life in its final 10 minutes and 38 seconds.


Elif Shafak’s UK value to date, having shifted 164,000 units through the TCM


READING AND TALK WITH ELIF SHAFAK


Acclaimed Shafak takes to the Agora for novel reading


BASED IN LONDON


TURKISH WRITER ELIF SHAFAK IS


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36