Hope, Fate and Poverty

with Chigozie Obioma & Tash Aw / chaired by Michael Williams

NIGERIA/USA/MALAYSIA/UK

Chicken farmer Chinoso’s efforts to show himself worthy to his rich fiancé’s disdainful family prove ill-fated in Chigozie Obioma’s Booker-shortlisted An Orchestra of Minorities. In Tash Aw’s We, The Survivors, Ah Hock’s struggle to keep the job that rescued him from a precarious existence has disastrous consequences. Both books tell of men yearning for small settled lives brought undone by the social circumstances that surround them, and are as structurally bold as they are emotionally powerful.

Participants

Chigozie Obioma was born in Akure, Nigeria, and currently lives in the US, where he is Assistant Professor of Literature and Creative Writing at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. His debut novel, The Fishermen, was shortlisted for the Booker Prize and won many awards including the FT/Oppenheimer Award for Fiction and the LA Times Book Prize for Fiction. His most recent book, An Orchestra of Minorities was also shortlisted for the Booker in 2019.

Tash Aw was born in Taipei, brought up in Malaysia and now lives in London. His first novel, The Harmony Silk Factory, was the winner of the Whitbread First Novel Award and the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize for Best First Novel. It was long-listed for the Booker Prize, as was his third novel, Five Star Billionaire. His new novel is We, the Survivors.

Michael Williams is the Director of the Wheeler Centre for Books, Writing and Ideas in Melbourne.

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WHEN

Sun 01 Mar, 5:00pm

WHERE

Pionner Women's Memorial Garden
East Stage

DURATION

1 hr

NOTE

For the podcast of this session click here.

ACCESS

Wheelchair accessible

Hope, Fate and Poverty

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