In this special live recording we dive into The Seers, the mesmerising new novel by Sulaiman Addonia. In conversation with Adam Biles, Addonia shares the story behind his bold, unfiltered novel—written as a single, unbroken paragraph—through the voice of Hannah, an Eritrean refugee navigating love, loss, sexuality, and identity on the streets of London. Three powerful readings by Liya Kebede, bringing Hannah’s world vividly to life

The Seers is a novel that defies definition—sensual, poetic, and politically charged. Addonia’s reflections on storytelling, migration, and the search for home will stay with you long after you listen.

Buy The Seers: https://www.shakespeareandcompany.com/books/the-seers

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Sulaiman Addonia is an Eritrean-Ethiopian-British novelist. He spent his early life in a refugee camp in Sudan, and his early teens in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. He arrived in London as an underage unaccompanied refugee without a word of English and went on to earn an MA in Development Studies from SOAS and a BSc in Economics from UCL.

His first novel, The Consequences of Love (Chatto & Windus, 2008), was shortlisted for the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize and translated into more than 20 languages. His second novel, Silence Is My Mother Tongue (Indigo Press, 2019; Graywolf Press, 2020), was a finalist for the 2021 Lambda Literary Awards. His essays appear in LitHub, Granta, Freeman’s, The New York Times, De Standaard and Sulaiman Addonia is an Eritrean-Ethiopian-British novelist .Addonia currently lives in Brussels where he founded the Creative Writing Academy for Refugees & Asylum Seekers and the Asmara-Addis Literary Festival In Exile.

Liya Kebede is a pioneering model, actress, entrepreneur, and philanthropist. She has worked with top fashion brands like Chanel, Gucci, Yves Saint Laurent, and Estée Lauder, promoting inclusivity in the industry. In 2007, she launched lemlem, a sustainable fashion brand supporting Ethiopian Artisans. Kebede is also a WHO Goodwill Ambassador and founded the lemlem Foundation to improve healthcare and economic opportunities for African women. She promotes literature through her latest endeavour "Liyabraire" and introduced the BB Bookbags collection.

Adam Biles is Literary Director at Shakespeare and Company. His latest novel, Beasts of England, a to Animal Farm, is available now. Buy a signed copy here: https://www.shakespeareandcompany.com/books/beasts-of-england

Listen to Alex Freiman’s latest EP, In The Beginning: https://open.spotify.com/album/5iZYPMCUnG7xiCtsFCBlVa?si=h5x3FK1URq6SwH9Kb_SO3w

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Join us for a thought-provoking conversation with Amber Massie-Blomfield, author of Acts of Resistance: The Power of Art to Create a Better World. This conversation, recorded in store, dives into the profound role art plays in times of crisis. Amber shares stories of artists who defied oppressive regimes, like Claude Cahun's surrealist resistance in Nazi-occupied Jersey and Susan Sontag’s production of Waiting for Godot during the siege of Sarajevo. We explore how art inspires activism, questions societal norms, and fosters collective resilience. From daring theatrical productions to sunflower-lined streets, Amber reveals art’s transformative potential to unite and inspire. Whether you're an artist, activist, or curious thinker, this episode challenges the notion that art is “just” entertainment and posits it as a force for meaningful change.

Buy Acts of Resistance: https://www.shakespeareandcompany.com/books/acts-of-resistance

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Amber Massie-Blomfield’s first book, Twenty Theatres to See Before You Die, was published by Penned in the Margins in May 2018, and received the Society of Authors’ Michael Meyer Award. Formerly executive director of internationally renowned theatre company Complicité, she has also worked as an arts producer with companies including Camden People's Theatre, Barbican, Actors Touring Company, tiata fahodzi, and English PEN. She lives in Brixton. 

Adam Biles is Literary Director at Shakespeare and Company. His latest novel, Beasts of England, a to Animal Farm, is available now. Buy a signed copy here: https://www.shakespeareandcompany.com/books/beasts-of-england

Listen to Alex Freiman’s latest EP, In The Beginning: https://open.spotify.com/album/5iZYPMCUnG7xiCtsFCBlVa?si=h5x3FK1URq6SwH9Kb_SO3w

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In this pivotal episode, Adam Biles speaks with French journalist and author Salomé Saqué about her urgent new book, Résister. Recorded two days after the death of French far-right leader Jean-Marie Le Pen and coinciding with Donald Trump’s second inauguration, this conversation delves into the global rise of far-right movements, their strategies, and the grave implications for democracy.

Saqué discusses the normalisation of extremist politics in France, the erosion of democratic institutions, and the global connections among far-right leaders and billionaires. She highlights the dangers of misinformation, attacks on the judiciary, and the media’s complicity in enabling these movements. Drawing from historical patterns and international parallels, Saqué issues a powerful call to resist authoritarianism through informed action, dialogue, and collective effort.

The episode concludes with practical advice for combating despair and taking meaningful steps in everyday life to safeguard democratic values—whether by sharing information, engaging in constructive dialogue, or participating in grassroots movements.

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Salomé Saqué is a French journalist and author known for her work on social and political issues like climate change, inequality, and women's rights. She began her career with internships at Le Monde diplomatique and France 24, and later joined Blast, where she heads the economic section. Saqué has written several books, including "Sois jeune et tais-toi : Réponse à ceux qui critiquent la jeunesse" (2023), which addresses the concerns of French youth. Her 2024 essay, "Résister", calls for resistance against the rise of the far right in Europe.

Adam Biles is Literary Director at Shakespeare and Company. His latest novel, Beasts of England, a to Animal Farm, is available now. Buy a signed copy here: https://www.shakespeareandcompany.com/books/beasts-of-england

Listen to Alex Freiman’s latest EP, In The Beginning: https://open.spotify.com/album/5iZYPMCUnG7xiCtsFCBlVa?si=h5x3FK1URq6SwH9Kb_SO3w

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For the second part of this year’s Bloomcast Holiday Special, Alice, Lex, and Adam get help from novelist Claire-Louise Bennett and Philosophy professor Foad Dizadji-Bahmani to explore how it challenges conventional ideas of narrative, language, and meaning. As always, our Bloomcasters invite listeners into a spirited and thought-provoking conversation that bridges literary analysis, philosophical inquiry, and personal reflections…before topping of the conversation with a game so contrived it would make Blazes Boylan blush.

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Alice McCrum is a Ph.D. student in the Department of History at Princeton University. Before starting her graduate work, Alice lived in Paris, where she taught at the Sorbonne, studied public policy at Sciences Po-Paris, and directed cultural programming at the American Library in Paris. 

Lex Paulson is Director of Executive Programs at the UM6P School of Collective Intelligence (Morocco) and lectures in advocacy and human rights at Sciences Po-Paris. Trained in classics and community organizing, he served as mobilization strategist for the campaigns of Barack Obama in 2008 and Emmanuel Macron in 2017. He served as legislative counsel in the 111th U.S. Congress (2009-2011), organized on six U.S. presidential campaigns, and has worked to advance democratic innovation at the European Commission and in India, Tunisia, Egypt, Uganda, Senegal, Czech Republic and Ukraine. He is author of Cicero and the People’s Will: Philosophy and Power at the End of the Roman Republic, from Cambridge University Press, and is co-editor of the Routledge Handbook of Collective Intelligence for Democracy and Governance.

Adam Biles is an English writer and translator based in Paris. He is Literary Director at Shakespeare and Company. In 2022, he conceived and presented Friends of Shakespeare and Company read Ulysses—an epic, polyphonic celebration of James Joyce’s masterwork. Feeding Time, his first novel, was published by Galley Beggar Press in 2016. It was published by Editions Grasset in France in 2018 to great critical acclaim. His second novel, Beasts of England, was published in September 2023 by Galley Beggar Press, and will be published in 2025 by Editions Grasset. It was selected as a "2023 highlight" by The Guardian. A collection of his conversations with writers, The Shakespeare and Company Book of Interviews, was published by Canongate in October 2023

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Originally published by The Stinging Fly Press in Ireland on 2015, Claire-Louise Bennett’s POND found a wider audience with its UK publisher, the then nascent Fitzcarraldo Editions—the paradigm-shifting house that is currently celebrating its 10th birthday. POND is an extraordinarily erudite book, which wears that erudition extraordinarily lightly. It could be understood as being in dialogue with writers such as Huysmans, Virginia Woolf, Sylvia Plath, John Berger, as well as with any number of contemporary authors who feel determined that their books should be about something. But POND is also funny, earthy, dirty, silly, profound and confounding. In short, it is unlike anything else, the kind of book that defies the “if you liked this, you’ll like that” algorithm. Just the kind of book we love at S&Co.

Buy Pond: https://www.shakespeareandcompany.com/books/pond

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Claire-Louise Bennett grew up in Wiltshire and studied literature and drama at the University of Roehampton, before moving to Ireland where she worked in and studied theatre for several years. In 2013 she was awarded the inaugural White Review Short Story Prize and went on to complete her debut book, Pond, which was shortlisted for the Dylan Thomas Prize in 2016. Checkout 19 was published by Jonathan Cape in 2021 and was part of the New York Times 10 Best Books of 2022 Selection.

Claire-Louise's fiction and essays have appeared in a number of publications including The White Review, The Stinging Fly, gorse, Harper's Magazine, Vogue Italia, Music & Literature, and The New York Times magazine. She also writes about art and is a frequent contributor to frieze. In addition she has written for Tate etc., and Artforum, and a number of international exhibition catalogues. In 2016 she was writer-in-residence at Temple Bar Gallery & Studio. In 2020, Milan based art publisher Juxta Press published Fish Out Of Water, an essay Claire-Louise wrote in response to a self-portrait painting by Dorothea Tanning. 

Adam Biles is Literary Director at Shakespeare and Company. His latest novel, Beasts of England, a sequel of sorts to Animal Farm, is available now. Buy a signed copy here: https://www.shakespeareandcompany.com/books/beasts-of-england

Listen to Alex Freiman’s latest EP, In The Beginning: https://open.spotify.com/album/5iZYPMCUnG7xiCtsFCBlVa?si=h5x3FK1URq6SwH9Kb_SO3w

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Happy Joycension Day!

For this year’s Bloomcast Holiday Special, Alice, Lex, and Adam reunited for a lively discussion of Watt by Samuel Beckett, asking: How does Beckett’s minimalist, disintegrative style compare to James Joyce’s expansive, celebratory storytelling? What makes this novel so uniquely absurd and profound? And why does Watt feel both so playful and deeply unsettling? Is Watt a meticulously structured puzzle or an exercise in unraveling structure itself? What does Watt tell us about Beckett’s influence on modern literature?

Setting this enigmatic work against the context of Beckett’s wartime experiences, they also explore how it challenges conventional ideas of narrative, language, and meaning. What is Watt’s lasting impact on readers and thinkers alike? As always, our Bloomcasters invite listeners into a spirited and thought-provoking conversation that bridges literary analysis, philosophical inquiry, and personal reflections…before topping of the conversation with a game so contrived it would make Blazes Boylan blush.

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Alice McCrum is a Ph.D. student in the Department of History at Princeton University. Before starting her graduate work, Alice lived in Paris, where she taught at the Sorbonne, studied public policy at Sciences Po-Paris, and directed cultural programming at the American Library in Paris. 

Lex Paulson is Director of Executive Programs at the UM6P School of Collective Intelligence (Morocco) and lectures in advocacy and human rights at Sciences Po-Paris. Trained in classics and community organizing, he served as mobilization strategist for the campaigns of Barack Obama in 2008 and Emmanuel Macron in 2017. He served as legislative counsel in the 111th U.S. Congress (2009-2011), organized on six U.S. presidential campaigns, and has worked to advance democratic innovation at the European Commission and in India, Tunisia, Egypt, Uganda, Senegal, Czech Republic and Ukraine. He is author of Cicero and the People’s Will: Philosophy and Power at the End of the Roman Republic, from Cambridge University Press, and is co-editor of the Routledge Handbook of Collective Intelligence for Democracy and Governance.

Adam Biles is an English writer and translator based in Paris. He is Literary Director at Shakespeare and Company. In 2022, he conceived and presented Friends of Shakespeare and Company read Ulysses—an epic, polyphonic celebration of James Joyce’s masterwork. Feeding Time, his first novel, was published by Galley Beggar Press in 2016. It was published by Editions Grasset in France in 2018 to great critical acclaim. His second novel, Beasts of England, was published in September 2023 by Galley Beggar Press, and will be published in 2025 by Editions Grasset. It was selected as a "2023 highlight" by The Guardian. A collection of his conversations with writers, The Shakespeare and Company Book of Interviews, was published by Canongate in October 2023

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The publication of The Coin by Yasmin Zaher marks the arrival of a determinedly contemporary, sometimes confounding, always compelling voice in English-language literature. Telling the story of a young Palestinian woman, struggling to make her life in New York City, we quickly get to know a woman of complexities and contradictions… She’s the heir to a vast fortune—and with the tastes that match such wealth—but is denied access to her inheritance, and is living on a meagre-ish stipend in one of the world’s most expensive cities. She’s a teacher in a middle school — a job she kind of respects, kind of ridicules, kind of loves, and kind of despises. She’s a woman obsessed with purity and personal hygiene, but who also fully embraces the often impure, sometimes unhygienic, undertaking of casual sex. And she’s a Palestinian whose memories and knowledge of her homeland are ever-receding in the rear view mirror, but who is finding the American soil increasingly resistant to the putting down of roots. With all these tensions, something in her life is going to have to give. And what a ride we’re in for when it does.

Buy The Coin: https://www.shakespeareandcompany.com/books/the-coin

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Yasmin Zaher is a Palestinian journalist and writer born in 1991 in Jerusalem. The Coin is her first novel.

Adam Biles is Literary Director at Shakespeare and Company. His latest novel, Beasts of England, a sequel of sorts to Animal Farm, is available now. Buy a signed copy here: https://www.shakespeareandcompany.com/books/beasts-of-england

Listen to Alex Freiman’s latest EP, In The Beginning: https://open.spotify.com/album/5iZYPMCUnG7xiCtsFCBlVa?si=h5x3FK1URq6SwH9Kb_SO3w

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In a world overwhelmed by complex political challenges and endless commentary, where can we turn for insight into how we got here—and where we might go next? From the survival of democracy to the rise of AI, from confronting inequality to resisting surveillance, today's problems demand deep thinking.

In his latest book The History of Ideas, David Runciman explores how the rich history of political thought offers fresh perspectives on contemporary issues. What can the creator of the Panopticon teach us about resisting surveillance? How do the ideas of a former slave and a French Existentialist redefine liberation? And could a utopian novel from 1872 illuminate our understanding of artificial intelligence?

David Runciman joined Adam Biles for a spirited journey through radical thinkers and ideas of the past 250 years. Discover how their questions and insights remain strikingly relevant today, and why embracing diverse perspectives is key to understanding our world—and ourselves.

Buy The History of Ideas: https://www.shakespeareandcompany.com/books/confronting-leviathan-ii

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David Runciman is Professor of Politics at the University of Cambridge and the former Head of the Department of Politics and International Studies.His previous books for Profile include The Handover, Confronting Leviathan, Where Power Stops and How Democracy Ends. He writes regularly about politics for the London Review of Books, created the widely acclaimed weekly podcast Talking Politics and is host of the new podcast Past Present Future.

Adam Biles is Literary Director at Shakespeare and Company. His latest novel, Beasts of England, a to Animal Farm, is available now. Buy a signed copy here: https://www.shakespeareandcompany.com/books/beasts-of-england

Listen to Alex Freiman’s latest EP, In The Beginning: https://open.spotify.com/album/5iZYPMCUnG7xiCtsFCBlVa?si=h5x3FK1URq6SwH9Kb_SO3w

Get bonus content on Patreon

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Why are we so obsessed with the apocalypse? Is it a reaction to the state of the world—climate catastrophe, regional wars threatening global conflict, pandemic scares, and the unsettling rise of AI—or does it run deeper? Is it inherent to the modern world or, perhaps, the human condition? And why are we so captivated by apocalyptic stories in books, films, TV shows, video games, and art—sometimes improbable, sometimes terrifyingly possible?

Dorian Lynskey explores these questions in Everything Must Go. He starts in ancient times, with a detour through the Book of Revelation, before focusing on the 19th century, when humanity began to grasp that scientific advances could both transform and destroy the world. The 20th century brings the bomb, robots, and intelligent machines—the seeds of a potential end. Like the best non-fiction, Lynskey’s focus on a specific subject—armageddon—offers deeper insights into how we view ourselves, interact with others, and perceive our world.

Buy Everything Must Go: https://www.shakespeareandcompany.com/books/everything-must-go-5

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Dorian Lynskey writes about music, film, books and politics for publications including The Guardian, The Observer, the New Statesman, GQ, Billboard, Empire, and Mojo. His first book was 33 Revolutions Per Minute: A History of Protest Songs. A study of thirty-three pivotal songs with a political message, it was NME's Book of the Year and a 'Music Book of the Year' in The Daily Telegraph. His second book, The Ministry of Truth: A Biography of George Orwell's 1984, was longlisted for both the Baillie Gifford Prize and the Orwell Prize. He hosts the podcasts 'Origin Story' and 'Oh God, What Now?'.

Adam Biles is Literary Director at Shakespeare and Company. His latest novel, Beasts of England, a to Animal Farm, is available now. Buy a signed copy here: https://www.shakespeareandcompany.com/books/beasts-of-england

Listen to Alex Freiman’s latest EP, In The Beginning: https://open.spotify.com/album/5iZYPMCUnG7xiCtsFCBlVa?si=h5x3FK1URq6SwH9Kb_SO3w

Get bonus content on Patreon

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On the night of Friday, 13 November 2015, three suicide bombers blew themselves up outside the Stade de France during a football match between France and Germany, attended by President François Hollande. By 1am the next morning, 130 victims were dead, and 416 others were injured, many critically. Seven attackers were killed, and two more died in a shootout with police days later.

In September 2021, nearly six years later, the trial of 20 men accused of involvement in the attacks began in a specially built courtroom near the Palais de Justice. Fourteen were present, six tried in absentia, and only one, Salah Abdeslam, had directly participated in the attacks. The others were involved in planning, logistics, or assisting the terrorists. With many defendants refusing to testify and the trial featuring mostly secondary figures, some doubted whether it would be meaningful. However, in V13, Emmanuel Carrère’s gripping account, it becomes clear that the trial was far from a failure. As he writes, it became "a unique experience of horror, pity, proximity and presence.” The book, based on Carrère's weekly dispatches for L’Obs, immerses readers in the trial, offering a vivid, firsthand perspective of this historic event.

Buy V13: https://www.shakespeareandcompany.com/books/v13

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Emmanuel Carrère, novelist, filmmaker, journalist, and biographer, is the award-winning internationally renowned author of The Adversary (a New York Times Notable Book), Lives Other Than My Own, My Life As A Russian Novel, Class Trip, Limonov and The Mustache.

Adam Biles is Literary Director at Shakespeare and Company. His latest novel, Beasts of England, a to Animal Farm, is available now. Buy a signed copy here: https://www.shakespeareandcompany.com/books/beasts-of-england

Listen to Alex Freiman’s latest EP, In The Beginning: https://open.spotify.com/album/5iZYPMCUnG7xiCtsFCBlVa?si=h5x3FK1URq6SwH9Kb_SO3w

Get bonus content on Patreon

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.