Curator Devyani Saltzman’s struck gold with Luminato’s literary component – in more ways than one. On June 15, Chris Cleave launches his new novel, Gold, with an onstage interview alongside Vincent Lam (The Headmaster’s Wager), just two of the major authors she’s scored.
Irvine Welsh arrives June 12 with Skagboys, a prequel to his breakthrough novel Trainspotting. On June 11, multiple Booker winner Peter Carey presents The Chemistry Of Tears, the story of a grieving museum conservator whose project involving a 19th-century robot changes her life.
But the theme that forms the centrepiece of Luminato’s literary program is the War of 1812 and its 200th anniversary. In a series of events, Canadian and American writers converge to read and exchange ideas about the relationship between the two nations hugging the 49th parallel.
Among these writers, Richard Ford launches his new novel, Canada, on June 16, in which a teenaged boy crosses the border from Montana to Saskatchewan when his parents are arrested for robbing a bank. Linden MacIntyre (Why Men Lie), Ayad Akhtar (American Dervish) and Kyo Maclear (Stray Love) talk about national identity on June 16, and Lewis Lapham weighs in on Canada-U.S. relations on June 14, all at the TIFF Bell Lightbox.
An ancillary series, focusing directly on history, features Alan Taylor (The Civil War Of 1812) at the Toronto Reference Library on June 13 and James Laxer (Tecumseh & Brock) at the Bloor/Gladstone branch June 17.
Plus, Nicole Krauss, Annie Proulx, Hari Kunzru, Jim Lynch and more.
