MLF and NICE Festival of Nordic Art and Culture are honoured to present Norway’s leading contemporary writer, Lars Saabye Christensen. He is the author of twelve novels as well as short stories and poetry. His international best-selling novel The Half Brother won the Nordic Prize for Literature and the Norwegian Booksellers’ Prize. His hugely popular novel Beatles has just been translated into English. Beginning in 1965, the year of the first wave of Beatlemania in Norway, it tells the story of Kim Karlsen and his three buddies, who sometimes like to think of themselves as the Fab Four.

 

In association with the Confucius Institute at the University of Manchester and Comma Press, MLF is delighted to launch the inaugural Manchester Translation, featuring Ding Liying, one of a new generation of Chinese women writers, acclaimed for her short stories focusing on the lives of ordinary urban women, her prize-winning lyric poetry, and her translations of Elizabeth Bishop’s poetry. Nicky Harman, who is the translator of several prize-winning Chinese authors and teaches translation at Imperial College London, has been commissioned to undertake the first English translation of Ding’s short story Family Secrets – a claustrophobic tale of a young Shanghai journalist unwittingly drawn into a murder. Join Ding Liying and Nicky Harman for this unique insight into Chinese urban life and the art of translation.

 

In association with Literature Across Frontiers, we are delighted to present three representatives of Beirut 39, an anthology which brings together inspiring young Arab writers. The multi award-winning Moroccan writer Yassin Adnan is the author of three books of poems and two collections of short stories, as well as Marrakesh: Heralded Secrets, a literary text which attempts to outline the history of his home town. Born in 1975 in Morocco, Abdelkader Benali emigrated to the Netherlands at the age of four. His novels include Wedding by the Sea and The Long-Awaited, for which he was awarded the Libris Literature Prize. Ala Hlehel is the Palestinian author of the novel The Circus, and the collection Stories in Time of Need, and has twice won the al-Qattan Young Writer Award. The event will be chaired by Claire Armistead (Literary Editor of The Guardian)

 

The Orange Prize-winning author of We Need to Talk About Kevin discusses her extraordinary new novel, So Much for That. It tells of former handyman business owner Shepherd Knacker, who is forced to shelve his dream of a new life on a remote African island when his wife is diagnosed with a rare and aggressive form of cancer. Told with Shriver’s trademark wit and political acumen, the novel is a timely and entertaining exploration the American healthcare system, and our responses to illness and death. Don’t miss this rare opportunity to encounter one of the world’s greatest living writers and thinkers.