Free Thinking

BBC Radio 3’s arts and ideas programme explores the art of writing about your country with the authors Javier Cercas, Elif Shafak and Juan Gabriel Vasquez. Chaired by Shahidha Bari, Senior Lecturer at Queen Mary University of London and Fellow of the Forum for European Philosophy at the LSE. She was one of the first BBC Radio 3 New Generation Thinkers in 2011 and has presented programmes for BBC Radio 3 and 4. Javier Cercas is a professor of Spanish literature and author of novels including The Imposter, Soldiers of Salamis and The Anatomy of a Moment. His books have been translated into more than 20 languages. Elif Shafak is an award winning novelist and scientist whose books includeThree Daughters of Eve, The Forty Rules of Love and The Bastard of Istanbul. Juan Gabriel Vasquez won the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award for The Sound of Things Falling. His other novels include The Informers, The Secret History of Costaguana, Reputations, and his latest, The Shape of the Ruins.