Europa Editions in partnership with Free Word
Mon 9 May 2016, 6:45pm
Free Word Lecture Theatre
She was known as “Bait 455,” the most famous prisoner in a ruthless theological republic. He was one of the colonels closest to the Supreme Commander. When they meet, years later, far from their country of birth, a strange, equivocal relationship develops between them.
Translated by Alison Anderson, The Man Who Snapped His Fingers by Fariba Hachtroudi is a novel of ideas that explores the crushing effects of totalitarianism and the infinite power of love.
Join Fariba and Alex Preston for a discussion on power, memory, and the way books can help us build bridges across cultures.
“A profound, exquisitely crafted novella about life under a merciless regime, about torture and resilience, truth and culpability and the triumph of love over fear.”
- Lucy Popescu in the Independent
“Premises don’t come much more gripping than this one: years after a brief encounter in a torture chamber, a former senior official of a tyrannical Theological Republic and a woman who was one of the regime’s myriad victims come face to face. This time, the power balance is reversed.”
- Ann Morgan, author of A Year Reading the World and Beside Myself
This event is part of Wanderlust: Great Literature from Around the World, a monthly event series at Free Word. Join us on the second Monday of each month to celebrate the best fiction in translation.
We record each Wanderlust so that if you can't make an event, you can catch up and enjoy the conversation via an online audio recording. These recordings are available on our Soundcloud and also on our blog within a week or two of the live event at Free Word Centre.
This event is also part of the European Literature Festival.
