list.co.uk/books Thursday 24
Glasgow FREE Raymond Friel: Animal Lover Waterstones, 174 Argyle Street, 225 4326. 7–8.30pm. Friel launches his debut novel, including a short reading and a Q&A. FREE St Mungo’s Mirrorball The Poetry Club, 100 Eastvale Place, 357 7246. 7pm. Mirrorball Showcase 4 features readings from Clydebuilt 05 mentor Alexander Hutchison, Edinburgh-based poet Rob C Mackenzie and poet, playwright and animateur Michael Pederson.
Edinburgh ✽ FREE Elizabeth May and Jana Oliver: Re-imagining
Fairytales Blackwell’s, 53–59 South Bridge, 622 8222. 6.30pm. Free but ticketed. The two authors discuss their new books, May’s steampunk-inspired The Falconer and Oliver’s Briar Rose, a modern take on ‘Sleeping Beauty’. Out of Bounds Scottish Poetry Library, 5 Crichton’s Close, Canongate, 557 2876. 6.30pm. £5 (£4). Contributors to Out of Bounds, an alternative map of the UK created by its black and Asian poets, share their works. With Vahni Capildeo, Bashabi Fraser, Irfan Merchant and Tawona Sithole.
Dundee Dundee Literary Festival Bonar Hall, The University of Dundee Park Place, 01382 434940. Times vary. Prices vary. Until Sun 27 Oct. A mix of events including internationally renowned authors, local names and children’s authors. With writers Maggie O’Farrell, Rosemary Goring, and Alan Bisset, plus a full day Comic Conference and a celebration of 40 years of Canongate. See preview, page 52.
Friday 25
Edinburgh FREE Solidarity Reading Summerhall, 1 Summerhall, 0845 874 3001. 7–8pm. Readings to support political prisoners in Russia and America, including Mikhail Khodorkovsky and Chelsea Manning.
Saturday 26 Glasgow The James Connolly Songbook Launch The Glad Café, 1006a Pollokshaws Road, 636 6119. 8pm. £8. A celebration of Songs of Freedom, Connolly’s 1907 book of American songs, including a performance from editor/musician Mat Callaghan.
Edinburgh ✽ FREE By Leaves We Live Fair Scottish Poetry Library,
5 Crichton’s Close, Canongate, 557 2876. 11am–6pm. The library building is taken over by stalls, displays, workshops and talks for this annual celebration of books and small creative presses.
Sunday 27
Glasgow Robin Hobb: The Willful Princess and the Piebald Prince Waterstones, 153–157 Sauchiehall Street, 332 9105. 4pm. £3 (£2). The author introduces her new fantasy book with a talk and signing. Edinburgh Shore Poets Henderson’s @ St John’s, St John’s Terrace, 3 Lothian Road, 229 0212. 7.15–10pm. £5 (£3). This month, readings from Gerry Loose, Claire Askew and Jake Campbell, plus a wildcard slot.
R A T A M A N A D © O T O H P
I
Events | BOOKS
Winter in Edinburgh Guide
F R E E
Think you know all about
Edinburgh’s winter celebrations?
Well, think again. This year, there’s a lot more to the capital than just amazing fi reworks and rousing renditions of Auld Lang Syne. For 2013, the celebrations
are expanding across the city with new venues and bigger events than ever before,
featuring gigs, clubs, markets, parties, concerts, attractions
and family shows.
FIND OUT ALL ABOUT IT WITH YOUR COPY OF OUR WINTER IN EDINBURGH GUIDE, FREE WITH THE NEXT ISSUE OF THE LIST OUT WED 13 NOV
17 Oct–14 Nov 2013 THE LIST 55
INTERVIEW DAVID VANN
‘Fiction is about the things that can’t ever be finished or explained or fully understood; it’s about the places that we can’t ever reach.’ So says American author David Vann, who since his acclaimed 2008 debut Legend of a Suicide has been turning the troubled events of his family history into vital, powerful fiction, what he calls ‘the strange transformations that happen on the page’. In his stunning new novel Goat Mountain, he fictionalises a father-son deer- hunt from his youth to create a near-mythical human tragedy, resonant with biblical allusions.
It’s a dark and disturbing read, but in conversation Vann is far from gloomy: ‘I feel pretty good every day – I feel pretty cheery! But spending a little time with what’s awful and contemplating why we kill, experiencing it through landscape and emotions and dramatic scenes, there is a kind of wonderful catharsis that happens. It is tremendously reassuring to have pattern and meaning made out of what before was just incidental and terrifyingly meaningless.’
The most striking element of the novel is the narrator’s interpretation of events through the prism of Bible narratives. It was an unplanned surprise for Vann: ‘I always write books without any outline or plan. I never know what’s going to happen on the page each day, and I was really surprised to see religious elements show up. It was exciting to see the Bible come alive more, instead of being just the staid, set quantity that the church has said these things are, and it was interesting to me to see how buried religion is in me. Even though I’ve been an atheist for so long, it turns out that everything that is vital and important to me is actually still thought of in religious terms. That’s the culture that’s inescapably in me; I can’t think of the world and make sense of it without the Holy Ghost, it turns out.’ (Paul Gallagher) ■ Goat Mountain is out now from William Heinemann