Blackwell's Presents...

Blackwell's Broad Street was thrilled to be joined by author of the best-selling Grief is the Thing with Feathers, Max Porter. Max was in conversation with fellow author, Ali Shaw, discussing his latest book, Lanny.

There is a village outside London, no different from many others. Everyday lives conjure a tapestry of fabulism and domesticity. This village belongs to the people who live in it and to the people who lived in it hundreds of years ago. It belongs to England's mysterious past and its confounding present.

But it also belongs to Dead Papa Toothwort who has woken from his slumber and is listening, and watching. He is watching Mad Pete the village artist. He is listening to ancient Peggy gossiping at her gate, to families recently moved here and to families dead for generations. Dead Papa Toothwort hears them all as he searches, intently, for his favourite.

Looking for the boy.

Lanny.

‘It’s hard to express how much I loved Lanny. Books this good don’t come along very often. It’s a novel

like no other, an exhilarating, disquieting, joyous read. It will reach into your chest and take hold of your

heart. It’s a novel to press into the hands of everyone you know and say, read this.’

MAGGIE O’FARRELL

‘The writing is stunning and deeply affecting. The plot thunders along. This is a book that resolutely

refuses to be categorised but to get somewhere close, think: Under Milk Wood meets Broadchurch.’

NATHAN FILER

‘It takes a special kind of genius to create something which is both so strange and yet so compulsive.’

MARK HADDON

Max Porter’s first novel, Grief Is the Thing with Feathers won the Sunday Times/Peter, Fraser + Dunlop Young Writer of the Year, the International Dylan Thomas Prize, the Europese Literatuurprijs and the BAMB Readers’ Award and was shortlisted for the Guardian First Book Award and the Goldsmiths Prize. It has been sold in twenty-nine territories. Complicité and Wayward’s production of Grief Is the Thing with Feathers directed by Enda Walsh and starring Cillian Murphy opened in Dublin in March 2018. Max lives in Bath with his family.

Ali Shaw is the author of The Trees, The Man who Rained and The Girl with Glass Feet, which won the Desmond Elliott Prize for first novels. He grew up in Dorset and studied English Literature and Creative Writing at Lancaster University. He has worked as a bookseller and at Oxford’s Bodleian Library. He lives with his wife and two-year-old daughter.

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In February 2019, we were lucky enough to be joined by Kristen Roupenian, author of the phenomenon ‘Cat Person’, in-conversation about her debut book, You Know You Want This, with Man Booker shortlisted author, Daisy Johnson.

Emerging from a seven-year relationship in her mid-thirties, Kristen Roupenian thought she’d be much better at dating – she was older, wiser and boasted a finely tuned bullshit detector. Instead, a memorably bad encounter planted the seed for the story ‘Cat Person’, which became a viral sensation after being published by the New Yorker in December 2017.

Kristen Roupenian spent the early part of her twenties travelling the world in the Peace Corps, as well as working in a bookshop and as a nanny. She went on to study for a PhD in African literature at Harvard. When ‘Cat Person’ happened, Kristen was coming to the end of an MFA at the University of Michigan and putting the finishing touches to You Know You Want This, her first book. With a nod to classic horror, You Know You Want This examines the pull and push of revulsion and attraction between people.

Daisy Johnson is the author of the critically acclaimed short-story collection Fen. Her debut novel Everything Under was short listed for the Man Booker Prize. She is the winner of the Harper's Bazaar Short Story Prize, the A. M. Heath Prize, and the Edge Hill Short Story Prize. She has a Master's in Creative Writing from Oxford and was once a bookseller at Blackwell's on Broad Street.

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As part of Independent Bookshop Week, we want to share with you some of the stories of our booksellers from Blackwell's Broad Street. We are lucky enough to work with such wonderful people who are incredibly passionate about books.

This episode features Zool, the Sales Development Manager.

Sian Cain is the online editor for The Guardian Books and a former bookseller of Blackwell's Oxford.

As part of Independent Bookshop Week, we want to share with you some of the stories of our booksellers from Blackwell's Broad Street. We are lucky enough to work with such wonderful people who are incredibly passionate about books.

This episode features Ulic, manager of the Norrington Room.

Sian Cain is the online editor for The Guardian Books and a former bookseller of Blackwell's Oxford.

As part of Independent Bookshop Week, we want to share with you some of the stories of our booksellers from Blackwell's Broad Street. We are lucky enough to work with such wonderful people who are incredibly passionate about books.

This episode features Dave, Blackwell's Oxford's Sales Manager.

Sian Cain is the online editor for The Guardian Books and a former bookseller of Blackwell's Oxford.

Blackell's Oxford Twitter: @blackwelloxford

Books Are My Bag Twitter: @booksaremybag

As part of Independent Bookshop Week, we want to share with you some of the stories of our booksellers from Blackwell's Broad Street. We are lucky enough to work with such wonderful people who are incredibly passionate about books.

This episode features Alex, who works in Events.

Sian Cain is the online editor for The Guardian Books and a former bookseller of Blackwell's Oxford.

Blackell's Oxford Twitter: @blackwelloxford

Books Are My Bag Twitter: @booksaremybag

As part of Independent Bookshop Week, we want to share with you some of the stories of our booksellers from Blackwell's Broad Street. We are lucky enough to work with such wonderful people who are incredibly passionate about books.

This episode features Zoe, who work works in the Norrington Room.

Sian Cain is the online editor for The Guardian Books and a former bookseller of Blackwell's Oxford.

Blackell's Oxford Twitter: @blackwelloxford

Books Are My Bag Twitter: @booksaremybag

As part of Independent Bookshop Week, we want to share with you some of the stories of our booksellers from Blackwell's Broad Street. We are lucky enough to work with such wonderful people who are incredibly passionate about books.

This episode features Dan, who works in the fiction department.

Sian Cain is the online editor for The Guardian Books and a former bookseller of Blackwell's Oxford.

Blackell's Oxford Twitter: @blackwelloxford

Books Are My Bag Twitter: @booksaremybag

As part of Independent Bookshop Week, we want to share with you some of the stories of our booksellers from Blackwell's Broad Street. We are lucky enough to work with such wonderful people who are incredibly passionate about books.

This episode features Becky, who works in our travel department.

Sian Cain is the online editor for The Guardian Books and a former bookseller of Blackwell's Oxford.

Blackell's Oxford Twitter: @blackwelloxford

Books Are My Bag Twitter: @booksaremybag

Candice Carty-Williams sits down with our bookseller, Alex, to discuss her debut novel, Queenie.

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Music: Borrtex - Children's Joy