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Le programme anglophone / English programme
Every year, Le livre sur les quais offers a selection of events in English with visiting international writers. This year, we will welcome authors from the United Kingdom such as Charlie Gilmour, Romesh Gunesekera and Eleanor Catton, from Ireland with Lisa McInerey and from the Netherlands with Tobi Lakmaker.
Several of our events this year will focus on nature and the environment.
Saturday 31st of August
11h-12h
English Programme
"Mothers, Daughters, Fathers and Sons: Writing family relationships"
With Gwendoline Riley and Charlie Gilmour
Families provide endless inspiration for literature – this event will look at unconditional love, inheritance and influence in particular. Unsettling, bleak and funny, Riley’s My Phantoms explores a dysfunctional family unit. A failing relationship between mother and daughter is examined with uncompromising brilliance and sharpness. Gwendoline Riley will be in conversation with Charlie Gilmour, who, in his moving memoir, focuses on his complex relationship with his biological father.
Moderated by Michelle Bailat-Jones
La Couronne, 1st floor (60 min.)
13h-14h
English Programme
"Storytelling from Novels and TV Scripts to Video Games."
With Naomi Alderman
The Future, the latest novel from the Women’s Prize-winning, bestselling author of The Power, is a thrilling exploration of the world we have made and where it is that we are heading. A dystopian tale of digital technology and community, The Future follows a group of tech billionaires facing the end of the world. Naomi Alderman will talk about her novel as well as about her creative career as a games designer and a lead writer on the reality game Perplex City and as co-creator of the game Zombies, Run!
Moderated by Clare O’Dea
La Couronne, 1st floor (60 min.)
14h30-15h30
English Programme
"Writing the Climate Crisis: Eco activists and tech billionaires"
With Eleanor Catton
Birnam Wood pitches the interests of a group of eco activists against those of an American billionaire, who plans to extract rare minerals. Collective ideals and ideologies are tested in this gripping, thought-provoking, tightly plotted novel. Full of moral complexity, Birnam Wood captures our collective despair about the state of the planet.
Moderated by Matthew Wake
La Couronne, 1st floor (60 min.)
15h45-16h45
English Programme
"On Sri Lanka, Fragile Coral Reefs and Changing Societies"
With Romesh Gunesekera
Reef is set in the disintegrating paradise of Sri Lanka. Told by Triton, who has been working as a house servant to Mister Salgado, a marine biologist obsessed by sea movements and the disappearing coral reef, this novel spans political upheavals in Sri Lanka and exile in London. Beautifully told – at once luminous and epic – Reef was shortlisted for the Booker Prize in 1994 and remains a timeless, urgent classic.
Moderated by Clare O’Dea
La Couronne, 1st floor (60 min.)
17h-18h
English Programme
"The Search for Identity, Love, and Belonging: Being young in Cork and Amsterdam"
With Lisa McInerney and Tobi Lakmaker
Tobi Lakmaker’s account of coming of age in Amsterdam is a frank and funny journey through the highs and lows of one’s 20s, and a story of making peace with one’s identity and sexuality. Lisa McInerney’s novel is a riotous blend of sex, scandal, love, feminism, gender, music, and transgression against the background of today’s changing Ireland.
Moderated by Margot Dijkgraaf
La Couronne, 1st floor (60 min.)
Sunday 1st of September
13h-14h
English Programme
"Living alongside nature: From isolated islands to a bond with a magpie"
With Elizabeth O’Connor and Charlie Gilmour
This festival conversation will explore the role of nature in writing. Elizabeth O’Connor describes life on a remote Welsh island in a world on the edge of crisis in 1938, while Charlie Gilmour writes beautifully and emotionally about saving and taming a magpie. These two powerful literary debuts will alter how we look at nature.
Moderated by Matthew Wake
La Couronne, 1st floor (60 min.)
14h-15h
English Programme
"The New Nature of Business: Sustainability and Prosperity"
With André Hoffmann
Andre Hoffmann, philanthropist, businessman and Vice Chairman of Roche Holding, and journalist Peter Vanham will explore how companies should change to succeed. They will look at a template for creating “sustainable prosperity”, providing solutions to dilemmas such as how to balance business needs with impact on nature, shareholders with stakeholders, and short- vs. long-term profits.
Moderated by Peter Vanham
Cellier (60 min.)
14h30-15h30
English Programme
"Powerful Eco-thrillers: Interrogating power and the end of the world"
With Naomi Alderman & Eleanor Catton
The Future and Birnam Wood are both compulsively readable novels of big ideas. Both tell of tech billionaires and eco activists alike, both look at technology, surveillance, power, capitalism and human community. In this rare conversation between these two fantastic writers, they will tackle these essential questions of our times and discuss how their novels’ themes resonate with each other.
Moderated by Michelle Bailat-Jones
La Couronne, 1st floor (60 min.)
16h-17h30
English Programme – Writing Workshop
"Serendipity: The Art of Finding your Story"
With Romesh Gunesekera
La Couronne, 1st floor (90 min.)
With registration, max 12 participants. Registrations will open on the 5th of August.