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
Catherine Cho & Saima Mir: Destiny and Dynasty
As the old saying goes, the family that slays together, stays together – and it’s even messier in the criminal underworld. Saima Mir's…
Sophie Mackintosh & Stephanie Sy-Quia: Loves, Lies, and Longing
What’s better than reading a book that pulses with emotional electricity and the thrill of forbidden love? Reading two! In Permanence,…
Jem Calder & Derek Owusu: New Masculinities
When a debut author 'discovered' by Sally Rooney meets one of Granta’s Best Young Novelists, you can count on a fresh, fiercely intelligent…
Natalie Jayne Clark: The Malt Whisky Murders
Sit back, take a tipple, and delight in the darkly comic world of Tartan Noir novel, The Malt Whisky Murders. When Eilidh and her wife…
Patrick Freyne & Séamas O'Reilly: Deadly Serious
Two of Ireland’s sharpest wits come together for a conversation about finding the funny in the darkest of places. Patrick Freyne –…
Jenni Fagan: The Delusions
What happens when love collides with the laws of eternity? In The Delusions, Festival favourite Jenni Fagan (author of Luckenbooth and The…
David Keenan: Boyhood
It starts in 1979 with the abduction of a young boy outside a Glasgow football ground. But David Keenan’s Boyhood soon swells into a…
Édouard Louis: The Weight of Where We Come From
Few writers expose the intimate violence of class and family with the force of international sensation Édouard Louis. In Monique Escapes…
Samantha Shannon: Among the Burning Flowers
Samantha Shannon is an expert worldbuilder. With her million-copy bestseller The Priory of the Orange Tree (a feminist reimagining of Saint…
Lorraine Kelly: The Island Secret
A true Scottish national treasure, broadcaster, and bestselling author Lorraine Kelly needs little introduction. Hot on the heels of her…
Rebecca Perry: May We Feed the King
A reclusive heritage curator, a long forgotten, reluctant king, and the uncanny merging of history and storytelling – T.S. Eliot…
Lucy Caldwell & Nell Stevens: Short Story Magic
BBC National Short Story Award-winning Lucy Caldwell (author of Openings and These Days) and Nell Stevens (author of The Original and…
Tara Menon & Cecile Pin: Lives in Aftermath
Tara Menon's stunning debut, Under Water, and Cecile Pin's exquisite Celestial Lights are two haunting novels of retrospection, in which…
Shida Bazyar: The Nights Are Quiet in Tehran
Laced with secrets, sorrow, and the longing of exile, The Nights Are Quiet in Tehran tells the human story of political upheaval. Shida…Leila Elder & Mahmud El Sayed: Future Histories
Where will the world be in 25 years? How about two centuries from now? Today, two writers with audacious imaginations are here to share…
Candice Carty-Williams: Queenie is Working on It
Some protagonists are so full of life, they become as real to us as friends. Candice Carty-Williams’ Queenie is among the best of them.…
Rebecca Birrell & Megan Hunter: Love Against the Shadows
In Megan Hunter’s Days of Light, an enchanted afternoon in Bloomsbury-inspired Sussex ends in a tragedy which echoes across six decades,…
Howard Cunnell & Blake Morrison: A Life Observed
Blake Morrison and Howard Cunnell are masters of the everyday, balancing honesty and care in equal measure. Morrison’s On Memoir: An A-Z of…
Jacqueline Wilson: Picture Imperfect
For millennials everywhere, Jacqueline Wilson is cherished for creating some of our favourite childhood characters, from Tracy Beaker to…
Chris Kraus: The Four Spent the Day Together
Against an increasingly polarised backdrop of Trumpian, right-wing politics, how can we begin to understand the America of today? With her…
Laura Jones-Rivera & Heather McDaid: Publisher Not Found
They’ve published New York Times bestsellers, international stars, and countless debut authors. But after a decade of running the…
Harriet Tyce: Witch Trial
Crime writers don’t often find themselves caught in a web of deceit and treachery – but that’s exactly where author and contestant Harriet…
Niamh Hargan & Kiran Millwood Hargrave: Soulmates and Sliding Doors
A match made in heaven, Nyla Ahmad meets two contemporary writers to debate the role of fate in finding 'The One'. Niamh Hargan’s Nothing…