Brilliant Fiction
About our events
“Reading fiction is important. It is a vital means of imagining a life other than our own…” says the magnificent Ann Patchett. Join her, and a constellation of fiction stars, as we bring you brilliant, visionary, and inventive storytellers spinning tales of history, fantasy, romance, and more. Featuring Scottish greats and visiting writers from over 40 countries, encompassing household names and first-time novelists, we invite you to see the world anew this August.
From Scotland, award-winning novelist Ali Smith shares her exuberant new anti-war novel, Glyph; Maggie O’Farrell arrives fresh from Hamnet’s incredible awards streak with her new title, Land; Fern Brady joins us with a special preview of her debut novel, High Energy Unpleasant; and Jenni Fagan’s hugely anticipated The Delusions imagines an afterlife run by cosmic (and comic) bureaucracy.
Evelyn Clarke (AKA Cat Clarke and V E Schwab’s writing partnership) discuss sinister thriller The Ending Writes Itself, Louise Welsh returns to Glasgow’s seedy underbelly in The Cut Up, and Tom Newlands’ Something Like Happiness confirms him as a name to watch after Scottish Book of the Year-winning Only Here, Only Now.
From further afield, Daniyal Mueenuddin’s debut novel, This is Where the Serpent Lives, transplants the great Russian novel to modern Pakistan; Colm Tóibín regales us with The News from Dublin in his new collection of short stories; Claudia Rankine explores truth, art, and fiction in Triage; and Matt Haig boards The Midnight Train towards the past mistakes we’d like to erase.
Ben Lerner explores the failures of technology and memory in Transcription; Candice Carty-Williams’ vibrant Queenie returns 10 years older and no wiser in Queenie is Working on It; and million-copy-selling fantasy author Samantha Shannon unpacks her newest title, Among the Burning Flowers.
Sales of fiction in translation in the UK are booming: celebrate with literary royalty from around the world, including two of Japan’s bestselling sensations – Mieko Kawakami (Sisters in Yellow) and Nao-Cola Yamazaki (Don’t Laugh At Other People’s Sex Lives); Spain’s Javier Cercas; cult French author Édouard Louis; and a trio of 2026 International Booker Prize nominees: Yáng Shuāng-zi with Taiwan Travelogue, Germany’s Daniel Kehlmann with The Director, and Shida Bazyar with The Nights are Quiet in Tehran.
List of Events
Tom Newlands: Something Like Happiness
There’s an unmistakable buzz around Tom Newlands. Winner of Waterstones’ 2025 Scottish Book of the Year with his debut, Only Here, Only…
Brodie Crellin and Susannah Dickey: Under One Roof
Death brings people together, right? For the families at the heart of Brodie Crellin’s A Sense of Occasion and Susannah Dickey’s Into the…
Oyinkan Braithwaite: Cursed Daughters
Oyinkan Braithwaite’s Booker Prize-longlisted debut, My Sister, The Serial Killer, swiftly became a viral publishing sensation. Her hotly…
Daisy Johnson & Doireann Ní Ghríofa: Kindred Spirits
Mixing archive and memory, Doireann Ní Ghríofa’s Said the Dead draws readers into a haunting illumination of Cork’s forgotten women. In…
Patrick Gale & Lisa Ridzén: Before It’s Too Late
Family frailty and how ageing fathers ache for connection as the clock ticks down: these are the threads linking Patrick Gale’s Love Lane…
Jill Dawson: Pixie
Thousands consult Tarot cards about the paths they should be taking, but few know the name of Pamela ‘Pixie’ Colman Smith, illustrator of…
Philippa Perry: Shrink Solves Murder
When a man’s body washes up near Beachy Head, the police call it suicide – but his therapist is not convinced. Shrink Solves Murder is a…
Charlotte McConaghy: Wild Dark Shore
What does it mean to raise children in an ecological crisis? New York Times bestselling author Charlotte McConaghy felt the weight of this…
Naomi Ishiguro & Katalina Watt: High-Octane Folklore
If fast-paced fantasy plots are your thing, secure your seat for Naomi Ishiguro and Katalina Watt. In The Rainshadow Orphans, Ishiguro…
Irvine Welsh: Can Nothing Save Us?
Scotland’s grittiest writer returns to launch Can Nothing Save Us? – a ferocious saga of moral freefall, set in a blisteringly hot Las…
qntm: There Is No Antimemetics Division
An antimeme is an idea you can't hold onto – a dream, a dirty secret, a complex equation. Now imagine one that's hunting you. Software…
Annie Lord, Elle McNicoll & Bobby Palmer: Love, or Something Like It
Packed with stories that take on love in unconventional ways, contemporary romance has got hot again. Just ask Vogue columnist Annie Lord…
Abir Mukherjee: The Pinnacle
Welcome to the Pinnacle, Mumbai’s grandest skyscraper, where privilege lives high above desperation, and every floor has its secrets. In…
Tariq Ashkanani & Kirsty Lockwood: Breaking the Silence
Tariq Ashkanani, winner of the McIlvanney Prize 2025, presents his latest thriller, The Hollow Boys, following a young boy’s return 10…
Alex Kadis: Big Nobody
Described by Pandora Sykes as ‘riotously funny and immensely touching’, Alex Kadis’ novel, Big Nobody, spins us into 70s East London, where…Rosa Beltrán: Free Radicals
Rosa Beltrán’s electric novel, Free Radicals, has had to be reprinted three times in her native Mexico since it was published in 2021; now…
Saara el-Arifi & Nikita Gill: Of Queens and Goddesses
We’re thrilled to welcome back two outstanding talents this year, who’ve both chosen powerful, complex women to inspire their latest works.…
Sara Sheridan: The Jewel Keepers
A dangerous, long-guarded secret, a high-stakes treasure hunt through history, and a puzzle that stretches back generations – Sara Sheridan…
Jan Carson: Few and Far Between
Surreal times call for surreal stories. Jan Carson’s Few and Far Between imagines an alternative history in which a community marooned on a…
Olga Wojtas: Miss Blaine's Prefect and the Parcel of Rogues
It’s 1788, Burns-mania is sweeping Edinburgh, and a time-travelling librarian has enlisted the teenage Walter Scott to help solve a…
Bella Mackie: Claws Out
How to Kill Your Family author Bella Mackie is renowned for crime romps that skewer exactly the kind of people you (secretly) love to see…
Louise Welsh: The Cut Up
We’ve waited patiently for four years and the time’s finally come – but can our favourite queer auctioneer-turned-accidental-detective stay…
Dean Atta: Big Man
Is there anything Dean Atta can’t do? As well as being a beloved YA and children’s author, ‘one of poetry’s greatest modern voices’…