A L Kennedy: We Are Not Dead Yet

Captioned

A L Kennedy’s insightful and piercing gaze, evident in all her books, is probably at its most unflinching in her short stories. We were thrilled to welcome her back to the Book Festival in 2021 with her short story collection We Are Attempting to Survive Our Time. Appearing alongside her was one of Ireland's greatest writers Bernard MacLaverty, another consummately gifted wizard of prose, who presented Blank Pages, his collection of twelve extraordinary new stories that show the emotional range of a master.

Kennedy creates a sympathetically eccentric cast of characters for her book, writing with a bracing honesty, which at times is breathtaking. There is an American micro-celebrity who practises lines for a chat show on which he will never appear; and a woman who walks out of her honeymoon suite, possibly for good. The stories depict the difficulty we all face of living with one another, and the challenges of building a life in such a bizarre world as this one.

MacLaverty’s Blank Pages is deceptively simple on the surface but carries a turbulent undertow. Much of what he writes is an amalgam of sadness and joy, of circumlocution and directness. He never wastes words but neither does he ever forget to make them sing. His cast of characters include a poor out-of-work Catholic man who falls gravely ill in the sectarian Northern Ireland of 1942 and the last moments in the life of painter Egon Schiele, watching his wife dying of Spanish flu. Each story creates a universe. Everywhere, dark undercurrents pull at his subject matter: family love, the making of art, Catholicism, the Troubles and, latterly, ageing.

Yet, above all, both of these exquisite collections leave the reader feeling better about the world.

Dundee-born Kennedy is an occasional stand-up comedian as well as a gifted writer and MacLaverty is known for his chat and fine humour. Expect a hugely entertaining, often hilarious view of our strange times as they talk to Scottish author and journalist Stuart Kelly.

This event was filmed live at the 2021 Book Festival and both authors took part remotely.

Book Festival News

Celebrating the 2024 Book Festival Celebrating the 2024 Book Festival
Monday 26 August

Enjoying this event? You can help us produce more like it.

Donate

Share

Watch more

Carol Ann Duffy: ‘You Danced On the Road, Blowing Kisses’ Carol Ann Duffy: ‘You Danced On the Road, Blowing Kisses’ ‘Your vacant room / is a still-life framed by the unclosed door; / read by sunlight, an open book on the floor.’ This plaintive cry will be familiar to many empty nesters who have seen a child grow up and leave home. Written by Carol Ann Duffy, it opens a… Raja Shehadeh: To Absent Fathers Raja Shehadeh: To Absent Fathers In 1985, Raja Shehadeh’s father Aziz was murdered in a pre-meditated knife attack. The circumstances of the crime are the subject of his Strangers in the House. Today, through his new memoir, Shehadeh sheds a different light on the father-son relationship… Etgar Keret and Alain Mabanckou (2015 Event) Etgar Keret and Alain Mabanckou (2015 Event) Two internationally acclaimed novelists who have turned their hands to memoir talk to Nick Barley, director of the Edinburgh International Book Festival. Etgar Keret was declared ‘a genius’ by the New Yorker: The Seven Good Years, translated… David Wengrow: Reimagining Prehistory David Wengrow: Reimagining Prehistory It’s a pervasive belief that early human history involved a pivotal bargain; when cities and agriculture developed, primitive hunter-gatherers exchanged their freedom and equality for the hierarchies of civilisation. This is far from the truth, argue… Chitra Ramaswamy: Homelands Chitra Ramaswamy: Homelands One of three major performances this year looking at today’s Scotland. Homelands is the new work of non-fiction by Chitra Ramaswamy and tells the story of the author’s friendship with Henry Wuga, who arrived in 1939 with the Kindertransport fleeing Nazi… Gordon Brown: Global Crisis, Global Solutions Gordon Brown: Global Crisis, Global Solutions Since stepping down as an MP in 2015, former UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown has continued to make significant interventions in British public life. He joins us to discuss his latest book, Seven Ways to Change the World, in which he sets out his plan for… Tom Holland: Rome in a Time of Peace Tom Holland: Rome in a Time of Peace Tom Holland is the co-host of the phenomenally popular The Rest is History podcast. An accomplished writer and historian, he returns to the time when Christianity began with Pax — the last volume in a trilogy narrating the story of the Roman Empire… Brit Bennett: How the Other Twin Lives Brit Bennett: How the Other Twin Lives For a novel that begins in 1968, Brit Bennett’s The Vanishing Half may well be the timeliest fiction book of the year. Back in 2014, following the death of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, Bennett wrote an essay for Jezebel called ‘I don’t know what… Tom Lanoye & James Yorkston (2016 Event) Tom Lanoye & James Yorkston (2016 Event) Two doppelgänger Belgian exiles are on the run in Tom Lanoye’s latest novel, Fortunate Slaves. When they finally meet they realise that each could hold the solution to the other's problems. James Yorkston is familiar as one of Scotland’s finest… Jonathan Freedland: The Man Who Escaped Auschwitz Jonathan Freedland: The Man Who Escaped Auschwitz Imagine trying to escape from Auschwitz as a teenager, hiding for three days, while 3,000 SS and their bloodhounds search for you. This is the story of Rudolf Vrba, whose report on the atrocity of Auschwitz reached Roosevelt, Churchill and the Pope…