Michael Ondaatje (2011 Event)

The hotly-anticipated novel Cats Cradle is without question Michael Ondaatje's finest to date. Launched worldwide at this event, recorded live at the 2011 Edinburgh International Book Festival, he tells the story of a child and his journey from Ceylon to England on an ocean liner in the 1950s. As the child grows up into the realities of adult life, he looks back on his voyage as a symbol of the floating dream of childhood. Hear the man who won the 1992 Booker Prize for The English Patient, talk about his book that's sure to be hailed as a modern classic.

Download MP3

Book Festival News

Communities Programme participants celebrate success of 2024 Communities Programme participants celebrate success of 2024
Friday 13 December

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

Donate

Share

Listen to more

Chigozie Obioma & Simon Sylvester (2015 Event) Chigozie Obioma & Simon Sylvester (2015 Event) Chigozie Obioma’s thrillingly assured debut novel The Fishermen is set in small-town Nigeria, while Simon Sylvester’s seductive debut The Visitors unfolds on a remote Scottish island. Yet despite their disparate locations, these stories are… Ingrid Betancourt with Kirsty Wark (2011 Event) Ingrid Betancourt with Kirsty Wark (2011 Event) When Colombian presidential candidate Ingrid Betancourt went on the campaign trail in 2002, she could not have imagined that it would end in a kidnapping and six year incarceration at the hands of guerrilla forces… Alan Hollinghurst (2011 Event) Alan Hollinghurst (2011 Event) It's many years since Alan Hollinghurst's last novel, The Line of Beauty, was published – a story so powerful that it beat David Mitchell's Cloud Atlas to win the 2004 Booker Prize. His follow-up, The Stranger's Child… Alan Warner reading Sullivan's Ashes Alan Warner reading Sullivan's Ashes Man Booker longlister and Morvern Callar author reading his new story on the theme of Elsewhere… A L Kennedy A L Kennedy Linguistic brilliance from A L Kennedy, one of the most remarkable writers of her generation. In this 2007 event she talks about her latest novel Day - a moving, profound, beautifully realised story of a bomber in the Second World War… Alex Gray and Denise Mina Alex Gray and Denise Mina A fantastic hour of crime fiction with two leading ladies of the Scottish crime writing world. Alex Gray's third installment from DCI Lorimer sees him searching for missing school girls and Denise Mina's new book involves a kidnapping and dark secrets in… Ben Okri (2018 Event) Ben Okri (2018 Event) Which came first, the image or the word? It’s hard to tell in The Magic Lamp, Ben Okri’s collaboration with painter Rosemary Clunie. Subtitled Dreams of Our Age, it’s a collection of twenty-five enchanting, haunting stories, each… Making Meaning of the Voices (2014 Event) Making Meaning of the Voices (2014 Event) People with severe mental health issues are often stigmatized by society. From drugs to psychiatry, solutions are complex and expensive. Eleanor Longden, a voice hearer and a qualified psychologist joins James Ley, a playwright who explores his bi-polar… Gavin Francis (2018 Event) Gavin Francis (2018 Event) 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… Bernard MacLaverty Bernard MacLaverty