Elif Shafak: Rivers and Roads

  • Sat 10 Aug 19:30 - 20:30
  • EFI Venue T
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Elif Shafak: Rivers and Roads

Elif Shafak’s latest novel explores profound connections across borders and sees her immersed deep in the mysteries of water. Today the Booker Prize nominated author of The Island of Missing Trees launches There are Rivers in the Sky, a luminous story of memory, erasure, hurt, and healing, about characters whose lives are curiously linked to rivers and the mythical Epic of Gilgamesh. Chaired by Nick Barley.

Categories: Environment/Nature, Fiction

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Look, Listen & Read

Allan Little's Big Interview with Elif Shafak at the Edinburgh International Book Festival
Allan Little's Big Interview with Elif Shafak at the Edinburgh International Book Festival

Turkish-British author Elif Shafak is a respected campaigner for women’s rights and free speech. She wrote in the New Yorker that ‘wave after wave of nationalism and tribalism have hit the shores of countries across Europe, and they have reached the …

Heather McDaid & Nicola Sturgeon with Elif Shafak (2017 Event)
Heather McDaid & Nicola Sturgeon with Elif Shafak (2017 Event)

Elif Shafak understands the challenges of public intellectual life: she was wrongly accused of ‘public denigration of Turkishness’ for her novel The Bastard of Istanbul. In this event recorded live at the 2017 Edinburgh International Book Festival, s…

Interview - Elif Shafak (2015)
Interview - Elif Shafak (2015)

Writing in multiple languages was the subject of the day, and we caught up with Turkish writer Elif Shafak before she took to the stage with fellow multi-lingual writer Aleksandar Hemon. We also asked some audience members what they thought about the eve…

Aleksandar Hemon & Elif Shafak (2015 Event)
Aleksandar Hemon & Elif Shafak (2015 Event)

As a multilingual writer, does the language you choose to write in matter? Does it change who you are and who you are writing for? Does the omnipotence of global English dominate regardless? Elif Shafak is an acclaimed author who writes in both Turkish a…

Turkish writer Elif Shafak: “Populism is a fake answer to real problems”
Turkish writer Elif Shafak: “Populism is a fake answer to real problems”
Fri 23 August 2019

“Now we know that no countries are immune to toxic populism or toxic nationalism, in fact we’re all in the same boat together,” said the author and human rights activist in an emotional discussion about the rise of populism, nationalism and identit…

Scotland’s First Minister Admits “Nationalism” A Difficult Word at Book Festival
Scotland’s First Minister Admits “Nationalism” A Difficult Word at Book Festival
Fri 18 August 2017

First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has admitted she finds the word nationalism “difficult”, and that if she “could turn the clock back” she would give the party she leads a different name…

Director's Cut: Nick Barley's International View - Wednesday 16 August
Director's Cut: Nick Barley's International View - Wednesday 16 August
Wed 16 August 2017

Today, Book Festival Director Nick Barley blogs on selecting his fellow Man Booker International Prize 2017 judges…

Why I Call Myself a Feminist (2015 Event)
Why I Call Myself a Feminist (2015 Event)

In this event entitled “a Rally, a Rant, a Story, a Song, a Protest, a Poem”, women – and men – take to the mike for five minutes each to tell us why they call themselves feminists. Authors Val McDermid, Christopher Brookmyre, Eli…