Booka bookshop - Three events to book this October

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THREE EVENTS TO BOOK THIS OCTOBER - Victoria Hislop, Joanne Harris, John Boyne

Booka Bookshop Presents...one week, three incredible authors Join us for an afternoon with beloved bestselling author Victoria Hislop as she returns to Oswestry to talk about her epic new novel The Wine-Dark Sea. Greece, 1946. In the power vacuum remaining after the Second World War, a brutal civil war erupts between rival left- and right-wing factions. The conflict spirals as the country pays a bitter price in human lives and fighting soon erupts in the mountains, turning villages into battlefields and pulling ordinary women and children into the fray. When the government soldiers come to Kalopetra, Fotini is nursing her newborn second child. She urges her daughter, Iliana, to hide with the older children as she and the other women are herded into trucks. Weeks later, soldiers return for the children . . . but they are not to be reunited with their mothers, a wholly different fate awaits them. Fotini finds herself transported to a prison on the island of Chios, where she befriends Markella, whose little son, Nikos, is wise beyond his years. After months of imprisonment, when Fotini and Markella find themselves separated from one another – and from Nikos – Fotini vows to hunt not only for her own child but for Markella’s too. The Wine-Dark Sea tells of families flung apart across continents and of a strong, determined mother who resolves not to let war destroy hers. Victoria Hislop is at the height of her storytelling powers in this compelling and thought-provoking new novel, which offers insight into a little-known chapter of Greek history. Victoria’s highly anticipated new novel will delight those fans who cherish The Island and The Figurine. We look forward to welcomg Victoria back to Oswestry this Autumn to celebrate the publication of The Wine-Dark Sea. Join us for an evening with international bestselling author Joanne Harris as she talks about her latest book, Sleepers in the Snow, a beautiful, moving ghost story perfect for those winter nights which lie ahead.. Out on the moor, in the snow, a house stands beneath a pylon. It is a house full of memories, and full of old things. And, in the dark, when the pylon sings in the wind, it is a house full of ghosts and fading memories . . . The house, Kirkhill, has a new occupant – just moved in, fresh from a bitter divorce and looking for a fresh start. The moor is the perfect place for it: isolated, beautiful in the changing seasons, peaceful, and with just enough of the previous owners belongings that it’s a perfectly self-contained and cosy home. Only as the nights start to draw in, and the weather takes a turn, so does the house. The cosy isolation becomes menacing, animals begin acting strangely, and it seems someone could be watching the house . . . and the diaries of the previous owners begin to reveal a terrible tragedy which befell Kirkhill – one which its new occupant may be unable to escape . . . We look forward to welcoming Joanne back to Oswestry this Autumn for this event which is being at the new Grove Performing Arts Centre, Oswestry School. Join us for an evening with critically acclaimed and bestselling novelist John Boyne as he talks about his new novel The Weight of Angels and one of the great what-if stories of modern literature. The life Oscar Wilde never had - reimagined by John Boyne, author of The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas, in his most ambitious and emotionally powerful novel yet. ‘Can one rash decision prove the difference between a life well lived and a life destroyed?’ When the Marquis of Queensbury left his calling card at the Albemarle Club in February 1895, it bore only his name and five words: ‘For Oscar Wilde, posing Somdomite’. The most feted playwright of his day famously sued for libel, which led to his arrest, criminal prosecution and ultimately prison. From then on, his gilded existence spiralled into public disgrace, humiliation and an early death. But what if he had simply ignored the insult? What direction might his life have taken? This is the premise of John Boyne’s extraordinary new novel, The Weight of Angels. Rather than dying in penury in Paris at the age of forty-six, what if he had lived to bear witness to the momentous events and cataclysmic changes of the first part of the twentieth century, and even influence some of them? What if the second half of his life were as celebrated, dramatic, tumultuous and exhilarating as the first? In imagining the life that Oscar Wilde never had, John Boyne has written one of the great what-if stories of modern literature, giving the great Anglo-Irish poet and playwright a fresh new voice and the opportunity to take an entirely different path.   In a career spanning more than 30 years, he has published 15 novels for adults, 6 novellas, 6 novels for younger readers, a short story collection, and a picture book. His most famous book, The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas, was a New York Times No.1 Bestseller, and adapted for film, theatre, opera, and ballet, selling more than 11 million copies worldwide. It is used in schools on every continent to introduce young readers to their study of the Holocaust. Among his many international bestsellers are The Heart’s Invisible Furies, A Ladder to the Sky, and All the Broken Places. Between 2023 and 2025, John published his acclaimed novella sequence, Water, Earth, Fire, and Air, which was subsequently collected into one volume, The Elements. The Weight of Angels is his 16th novel. Further Information 01691 662244 | hello@bookabookshop.co.uk | Message via social media