Rowe Irvin and Gurnaik Johal in conversation with Kaye Mitchell

We are thrilled to partner with the University of Manchester's Centre for New Writing to welcome Rowe Irvin and Gurnaik Johal to the shop to discuss their stunning debut novels LIFE CYCLE OF A MOTH and SARASWATI. The authors will be in conversation with Kaye Mitchell.

Doors: 6.30pm, starts: 6.45pm

Tickets are £4. Admission is free when purchasing a copy the book.

About LIFE CYCLE OF A MOTH:

Maya and Daughter live in complete isolation in a secluded woodland, their days aligned with the light and changing seasons, a complex pattern of routine and ritual. Daughter has never questioned the life her mother has chosen for them; the life that has meant she's never met another soul, or known anywhere except their forest home.

But one day, when Daughter is almost sixteen, a red-haired stranger steps into the confines of their territory. Where there was always two, suddenly there are three - and the carefully constructed world that Maya has built to keep her daughter safe may not survive it.

About SARASWATI:

Centuries ago, the holy river Saraswati flowed through what is now Punjab. Many dismiss this as myth, but when Satnam arrives in his ancestral village for his grandmother's funeral, he finds water in the dried-up well behind her house. The discovery sets in motion a contentious scheme to unearth the lost river as an act of Hindu nationalist pride.

The river changes the course of Satnam's life, and those of six others. As legends and histories resurface, the distant relatives - from a Canadian eco-saboteur to a Mauritian pest exterminator to a Bollywood stunt double - are brought together in a rapidly changing India. Ambitious, moving and brimming with folklore, Saraswati is a tour de force from one of Britain's most feted young writers.

About the authors:

Rowe Irvin’s writing has been published by Prototype, Dancing Bear Books, the Oxford Review of Books and the Bristol Poetry Institute. She recently released an artist’s book limited edition of narrative poems in collaboration with the painter Georg Wilson. She has been shortlisted for the Bridport Poetry Prize and the Bath Short Story Award, and longlisted for the Alpine Fellowship Writing Prize, the Fish Anthology Poetry Prize and the Bath Flash Fiction Award.

Gurnaik Johal is a writer from West London born in 1998. His 2022 collection We Move won the Somerset Maugham Award and the Tata Literature Live! Prize. Its opening story won the Galley Beggar Short Story Prize. Saraswati is his debut novel.

If you cannot make the event but would like a dedicated copy of one of the books, please email events.manchester@blackwell.co.uk or call us on 0161 274 3331.

Our event format is usually a 45 minute discussion between the author and interviewer, followed by a chance for audience members to ask questions. There will be the opportunity to get your book signed/dedicated after the event. Events are a brilliant opportunity to discover new books, meet authors and likeminded readers and learn something new.

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