THE ANNIVERSARY: Andrea Bajani in Conversation with Hisham Matar

'On that day, ten years ago, I saw my parents for the last time. Since then I've changed phone numbers, houses, continents, I've erected an impregnable wall and put at an ocean between us. They've been the best ten years of my life'.

At once unflinchingly honest and razor sharp, The Anniversary is above all a novel of liberation which dismantles the tyranny of the family. It becomes a mirror in which we glimpse something that, even if we have not known it, affects it at all.

Andrea Bajani is the author of several award-winning novels including If You Kept a Record of Sins, Every Promise and The Book of Homes, which have been translated into over twenty languages. The Anniversary was a huge best-seller in Italy, won the Strega Prize in 2025 and has eighteen foreign language translations currently in progress. Born in Rome, he now teaches creative writing at Rice University in Texas.

Hisham Matar was born in New York to Libyan parents, spent his childhood in Tripoli and Cairo and has lived most of his life in London. His memoir The Return received a Pulitzer Prize in 2017. He is also the author of In the Country of Men, shortlisted for the Booker Prize, Anatomy of a Disappearance and A Month in Siena. His most recent novel, My Friends, won the Orwell Prize for Political Fiction 2024, was longlisted for the Booker Prize, and nominated for the National Book Award.

The discussion will be followed by an audience Q&A and book signing. Your ticket includes a complimentary glass of wine.

Tickets: £10 General Admission, £8 Foyalty Member / £16 Book and Ticket, inc. a copy of The Anniversary (RRP £12.99)
Venue: The Auditorium (Level 6) at Foyles, 107 Charing Cross Road*

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Host or Publisher Foyles Bookshop, 107 Charing Cross Road