Award-winning British-Turkish novelist Elif Shafak explores the transformative power of storytelling in an era marked by political turmoil, war and fractured reality. Joined by bestselling author and Professor Janina Ramirez, Shafak discusses her ambitious new novel In One Brief Moment All Eternity, which reimagines the life of Gustave Flaubert through the women - real and fictional - who shaped the nineteenth-century author of Madame Bovary.
The conversation examines how literature can cross borders, challenge assumptions and amplify marginalised voices. Spanning nineteenth-century France, Istanbul, Egypt and Beirut, the novel poses urgent questions: who gets to tell history, whose voices are remembered, and whose are left behind? Shafak will reflect on storytelling's role in helping us understand one another differently when truth itself feels contested.
The event takes place live at the Royal Society of Arts with simultaneous online streaming via YouTube. Shafak will sign copies of In One Brief Moment All Eternity after the conversation; copies will be available for purchase on the evening.
