The new novel from the comic master, author of What A Carve Up!, The Rotters Club and The Closed Circle. Beginning eight years ago on the outskirts of Birmingham, where car factories have been replaced by Poundland, and London, where frenzied riots give way to Olympic fever, Middle England follows a brilliantly vivid cast of characters through a time of immense change. “It was tempting to think, at times like this, that some bizarre hysteria had gripped the British people…”

We profile two more extraordinary books shortlisted for the Royal Society Insight Investment Science Book Prize: Lucy Cooke’s The Unexpected Truth about Animals: Stoned Sloths, Lovelorn Hippos, and Other Tales from the Wild Side of Wildlife and Mark Miodownik’s Liquid: The Delightful and Dangerous Substances That Flow Through Our Lives. In conversation with Roger Highfield of the Science Museum.

El periodista y documentalista David Dufresne (Francia) conversa con el escritor Raphaël Meltz sobre sus inicios trabajando en fanzines punk y su paso por el importante periódico Libération, hasta su incursión en el novedoso mundo de los documentales web, una nueva manera de entender el trabajo documental, y su trabajo en instituciones como el MIT.

Se ofrecerá traducción simultánea del francés al español

Shafak’s 10 Minutes 38 Seconds in This Strange World is an intensely powerful new novel from the bestselling author of The Bastard of Istanbul and Honour. For Leila, each minute after her death brings a sensuous memory: the taste of a stew of spiced goat, sacrificed by her father to celebrate the long-awaited birth of a son; the sight of bubbling vats of lemon and sugar which the women use to wax their legs while the men attend mosque; the scent of cardamom coffee that Leila shares with a handsome student in the brothel where she works. Each memory, too, recalls the friends she made at each key moment in her life.

Dos reputadas autoras conversan con la escritora y académica Magali Velasco sobre sus últimas colecciones de narrativa. Mariana Enríquez, autora argentina cuyo último libro de cuentos, Las cosas que perdimos en el fuego, ha sido traducido a más de veinte idiomas, es además periodista y editora. Gabriela Jauregui (México), autora de La memoria de las cosas, compilación de relatos publicada en 2015, también trabaja como editora y escribe crítica de arte.

With a rapidly ageing world population, dementia is now seen by many as the biggest health challenge facing the planet. Most families now have first-hand experience of dementia. The panel considers the current state of care and how to address some of the challenges of the future. Tracey Williamson is Dementia Carers Count Professor of Family Care. Dawn Brooker is Director of the Association for Dementia Studies. Jeremy Hughes is Chief Executive of Alzheimer’s Society. Keith Oliver is an Alzheimer’s Society Ambassador and Richard Cheston is Professor of Mental Health Research, University of the West of England.

Journalism in Mexico is in danger. The constant attacks and violence against professionals who work in the industry has increased consistently since 2006, when the journalist protection protocol was first introduced, following the model used previously in Colombia. Why is the Mexican context one of the most dangerous in the world in which to carry out this profession? Jaime Abello Banfi (FNPI), Ana Cristina Ruedas (Artículo 19) and Adrián López (Noroeste) will talk to Jacobo García.

The contemporary view of dyslexia has emerged from a century of research in medicine, psychology and, more recently, neuroscience. Considering the potential causes of dyslexia, and looking at both genetic and environment factors, Professor Snowling shows how cross-linguistic studies have documented the prevalence of dyslexia in different languages. Discussing the various brain scanning techniques that have been used to find out if the brains of people with dyslexia differ in structure or function from those of typical readers, Snowling moves on to weigh up various strategies and interventions which can help people living with dyslexia today. Chaired by Stephanie Boland of Prospect magazine.

Couto’s novel Woman of the Ashes masterfully interweaves history with folklore and has managed to create a work of rare originality and imagination set in 19th century Mozambique. Imani, a fifteen-year-old girl, struggles with her cultural identity as she is torn between her VaChopi roots and the occupying Portuguese. The three diaspora protagonists in Moore’s dazzling magical realist debut She Would be King meet in the settlement of Monrovia. Their gifts help them salvage the tense relationship between the African American settlers and the indigenous tribes, as a new nation forms around them.