Bernadine Evaristo & Laura Fish

The two authors read from and talk about their latest novels, which both offer unique perspectives on slavery. Laura Fish's Strange Music (Jonathan Cape) intertwines the stories of ailing poet Elizabeth Barrett with those of a maidservant and a former slave employed on the Barrett family estate in Jamaica. These multiple versions of history are each told in a uniquely lyrical voice. Bernardine Evaristo's Blonde Roots is a dazzling, imaginative reversal of the transatlantic slave trade in which Africans are the masters and Europeans are their slaves. Written with the author's customary wit and zeal, it is at once biting satire, a tragic family saga and a testament to the strength of the human spirit. Evaristo is also the author of three previous books which fuse poetry and fiction: Lara, The Emperors Babe and Soul Tourists. The event will be chaired by poet Shirley May and is in association with renaissance one.