Interview - Leila Aboulela & Alessandro Gallenzi (2015)

Two brilliant international writers, Sudan's Leila Aboulela and Italy's Alessandro Gallenzi, chatted to us about their new books before their joint event in Charlotte Square Gardens. After their event we asked some audience members what they thought. You can see Leila and Alessandro's hour-long event here on our website and on edbookfest's youtube channel, filmed live as part of Trading Stories at the 2015 Edinburgh International Book Festival.

Loading the player... if your browser supports audio and video it should appear in a few moments.

Book Festival News

Book Festival reveals first author events for 2024 Book Festival reveals first author events for 2024
Sunday 14 April

Enjoying this event? You can help us produce more like it.

Donate

Share

Watch more

Martha Wainwright: Failure, Fame and Family Martha Wainwright: Failure, Fame and Family It’s difficult to imagine acclaimed singer-songwriter Martha Wainwright as anything other than a singular success. Yet as the youngest member of a talented – often quietly cutting – musical family, Wainwright has long considered herself a failure in… Raven Leilani & Patricia Lockwood: Sharp, Fragmentary Fiction Raven Leilani & Patricia Lockwood: Sharp, Fragmentary Fiction Fans of cutting-edge fiction will not want to miss this brilliant meeting of minds. Both Patricia Lockwood and Raven Leilani have written sizzling debut novels that are being celebrated by critics, loved by readers and gaining recognition from major liter… James Kelman (2016 Event) James Kelman (2016 Event) With the publication of Dirt Road, Scotland’s only Booker Prize winner James Kelman joins a Scottish publisher for the first time in decades. This brilliantly accessible road movie of a novel arrives with Canongate’s typical panache, alongside a film … Naoise Dolan & Naomi Ishiguro: Growing Pains Naoise Dolan & Naomi Ishiguro: Growing Pains Every year at the Edinburgh International Book Festival, we celebrate the talent, wit and skill of emerging writers. In this event, we are joined by two of the freshest voices in fiction, whose coming-of-age narratives are by turns tender and cynical in t… Alison Watt with Andrew O’Hagan: The Joy of Influence Alison Watt with Andrew O’Hagan: The Joy of Influence Alison Watt is one of Scotland’s best-known living artists, renowned for her paintings of human figures and more recently for her intimate depictions of the folds in fabrics and draperies. With titles such as Phantom and Aware, these evoke the human bod… Jeremy Corbyn with Yanis Varoufakis (2018 Event) Jeremy Corbyn with Yanis Varoufakis (2018 Event) The remarkable transformation of the Labour Party under Jeremy Corbyn caught commentators by surprise. Against a backdrop of mainstream media scepticism, Corbyn galvanised his grassroots support and denied Theresa May an overall majority at the last elect… John Boyne & Simon Mayo (2016 Event) John Boyne & Simon Mayo (2016 Event) We were delighted to welcome John Boyne with his latest novel The Boy at the Top of the Mountain and Simon Mayo with Blame back to Charlotte Square Gardens. In this event, filmed live at the 2016 Edinburgh International Book Festival, they examine ideas o… Matt Haig (2017 Event) Matt Haig (2017 Event) Acclaimed writer of novels and screenplays for adults and children, Matt Haig’s new book, How to Stop Time, was so heavily anticipated that Benedict Cumberbatch signed up to play the key role in the movie adaptation well before its actual publication da… Gulbahar Haitiwaji: To Make Us Slowly Disappear Gulbahar Haitiwaji: To Make Us Slowly Disappear This is one Uyghur woman’s astonishing story of survival. More than a million Uyghur Muslims are incarcerated in Chinese detention units: China describes them as re-education camps while human rights organisations accuse China of genocide. Gulbahar Hait… Maryse Condé & Richard Philcox: Giving Voice to Guadeloupe Maryse Condé & Richard Philcox: Giving Voice to Guadeloupe At 83, Maryse Condé is one of the most significant voices of our time. The Guadeloupean novelist, critic and playwright has had a career festooned with honours and awards for her work, including the New Academy Prize in Literature, the substitute for the…