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Imagining Turkey: Elif Shafak in Conversation

Turkish writer Elif Shafak joins Anne McElvoy in conversation at Sage Gateshead. Elif talks about imagination and storytelling as well as Istanbul past and present.

Turkey's best selling female writer, Elif Shafak, has been published in more than 40 countries. Her books, including The Forty Rules of Love, The Bastard of Istanbul and Black Milk - her memoir of motherhood and depression, reflect her interest in building connections between Western and Eastern traditions. Her cosmopolitan voice is of particular importance in a year when the Middle East has been undergoing enormous shifts, and both nationalism and xenophobia are on the rise around the world.

She talks to Anne McElvoy about imagination and storytelling as she publishes her new novel The Architect's Apprentice.

The conversation was recorded in front of an audience at 麻豆社 Radio 3's Free Thinking Festival of Ideas at Sage Gateshead in 2014

All the discussions and essays from the Free Thinking festival are available as Radio 3 Arts and Ideas downloads.

Available now

45 minutes

Clip

Music Played

  • Johannes Brahms

    Hungarian Dance No 6 arr for orchestra

    Orchestra: Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. Conductor: Rafael Kubel铆k.
    • WARNER.

Credits

Role Contributor
Interviewed Guest Elif Shafak
Presenter Anne McElvoy
Producer Georgia Catt
Editor Robyn Read

Broadcasts

  • Tue 11 Nov 2014 22:00
  • Fri 21 Aug 2015 21:15

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