Description
Don’t miss this unique opportunity to listen to one of the great modern literary voices – the multi award-winning author Kamila Shamsie.
Her latest novel, Best of Friends, won the 2022 Women’s Prize for Fiction, and has been hailed as a “shining tour de force” by fellow author Ali Smith.
This dazzling new novel about friendship, identity and the unknowability of other people opens in Karachi in 1988 at a time of political unrest, when best friends Maryam and Zahra are 14 years old. As Pakistan’s dictatorship falls and a woman comes to power, the world suddenly seems full of possibilities. Elated by the change in the air, they make a snap decision at a party. That night, everything goes wrong and the two girls are powerless to change the outcome.
The story moves forward to present-day London where these two influential women, now adults, remain bound together by loyalties, disloyalties, and the memory of that fateful night.
Join Kamila for this special in-conversation event as she discusses her astonishing career.
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About the Author
Kamila Shamsie
Kamila Shamsie was born and grew up in Karachi, Pakistan. Her most recent novel, Home Fire, won the Women’s Prize for Fiction in 2018. It was also longlisted for the Man Booker Prize 2017, shortlisted for the Costa Best Novel Award, and won the London Hellenic Prize. She is the author of six previous novels including Burnt Shadows, shortlisted for the Orange Prize, and A God in Every Stone, shortlisted for the Women’s Bailey’s Prize and the Walter Scott Prize. Her work has been translated into over 30 languages. Kamila Shamsie is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and was named a Granta Best of Young British Novelist in 2013. She is professor of creative writing at the University of Manchester and lives in London.
About the Chair
Gerry Foley
Gerry Foley is a regular interviewer at book festivals across the UK. He’s been a broadcast journalist for decades, primarily at Westminster but also back in his native Ireland, both in Dublin and Belfast. Known for his versatility, Gerry has interviewed politicians, historians, novelists, scientists, judges, journalists, sports stars and comedians. He enjoys facilitating lively conversation between author and audience.
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