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A FEAST OF FICTION
Variety is the theme of this year’s fiction offering at The Times and The Sunday Times Cheltenham Literature Festival – real, copperbottomed variety, with international literary superstars sitting cheek by jowl on the list of speakers with some of the country’s most popular writers and a host of exciting new talent to discover.
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There is no bigger international literary figure at the moment than Karl Ove Knausgaard. We’re thrilled that he’s agreed to come to Cheltenham to receive this year’s Sunday Times Award for Literary Excellence and talk to Mark Lawson about his series of autobiographical novels, My Struggle. American giant Jonathan Safran Foer is here too to discuss his first novel for over a decade, Lionel Shriver introduces her novel The Mandibles, Icelandic sensation Yrsa Sigurðardóttir talks Scandi crime with Erik Axl Sund, and we’re delighted that bestselling American crime writer Michael Connelly is here at an event sponsored by The Times and The Sunday Times Crime Club to reveal all about his writing.
In popular fiction, what better list of names could you find than Jilly Cooper, Tracy Chevalier, Victoria Hislop, Nina Stibbe, Alan Titchmarsh and Alison Weir? And when it comes to new novelists to discover, we have a tempting selection, with prize-winning Eimear McBride and the highly praised first novelists Harry Parker and Kit de Waal. Two of my own favourites are also here: historical novelists Francis Spufford and Sarah Perry, stars of one of our Sunday Times Must Reads events, who I would recommend heartily to anyone.
Elsewhere, we’re celebrating Elena Ferrante with a special event featuring her translator Ann Goldstein (who knows, she may even let slip the mysterious Ferrante’s true identity) and we also welcome much-lauded Israeli short story writer, scriptwriter and graphic novelist Etgar Keret.
Andrew Holgate Literary Editor, The Sunday Times
Closer to home, we’re spoilt for choice, with Booker winners Ian McEwan and Graham Swift on their new novels, Edna O’Brien looking back at last year’s hugely acclaimed The Little Red Chairs, Maggie O’Farrell and Deborah Moggach discussing their new work, Mark Haddon on his first collection of short stories, The Pier Falls, and Sebastian Faulks talking about his latest novel, Where My Heart Used to Beat.
So, something for everyone at this year’s Festival. I hope you enjoy it.