Belfast Book Fesival 2017 Belfast Book Festival 2017 | Page 16

ABDULRAZAK GURNAH
We are pleased to welcome the Booker Prize shortlisted author of
Paradise to discuss his life in writing and the themes at the heart of
his elegant, evocative and superb novel Gravel Heart.
Lonely teenager Salim, travels from Zanzibar to London but nothing
prepares him for the biting cold and seething crowds of
the hostile city.
Evoking the immigrant experience with unsentimental precision
and profound insight, Gravel Heart is a powerfully affecting story
of isolation, identity, belonging and betrayal, and is Abdulrazak
Gurnah’s most dazzling achievement.
5.30PM // £7 | £5 // CRESCENT ARTS
DISMEMBERED
POLLY TOYNBEE & DAVID WALKER
What is the state and what has it ever done for you? More than you
think. The state houses, educates and employs us and protects us
on the street and in the wider world. However, in recent years the
government has depleted funding and resources and has mounted
an ideological assault on the public sector through the media.
Well renowned journalists and Guardian columnists, Polly Toynbee
and David Walker, have travelled around Great Britain gathering
the voices of the people who make up the state. This book is their
story. Join us for an evening lecture on the dismemberment across
our nation state: a fragmented NHS, a reduced police force, divided
schools and a vulnerable military.
6.30PM // £10 | £8 // CRESCENT ARTS
Fri 9 Jun