Night Owl Book Club: Priscilla Morris & Leo Vardiashvili
Join us for our August book club event on Saturday, 24th August, at 7.30 pm, when we'll be joined at Dukes of West Barns by Priscilla Morris and Leo Vardiashvili, authors of Black Butterflies and Hard by a Great Forest.
Purchase a copy of either Black Butterflies or Hard by a Great Forest via this page for free entrance to the event (admits one) - while spaces last! Alternatively, you can select an 'entrance only' ticket for this event.
The event will include a discussion and Q&A with Priscilla Morris and Leo Vardiashvili, followed by a book signing.
Please select 'local pick up' at the checkout if you would like to collect your copy/copies from Night Owl Books, or at the event. Alternatively, please select a Royal Mail option and we'll post your book(s) to you.
Event times:
Event: 19:30 - 20:30, followed by signing.
Doors: 19:15.
Venue information:
Dukes of West Barns, 5 Duke Street, Dunbar, EH42 1UR.
FAQs
- Will I be sent an e-ticket before the event?
Please note that we will have a guest list on the door on the night of the event, and you will not be sent an e-ticket for it - simply let us know your name/the name of the person who booked your ticket when you arrive, and we'll check you in!
A note on Covid precautions: if you feel unwell on the day, please err on the side of caution, and please take a lateral flow test before attending, if you can.
About Black Butterflies:
SHORTLISTED FOR THE WOMEN’S PRIZE 2023
SHORTLISTED FOR THE RSL ONDAATJE PRIZE 2023
SHORTLISTED FOR THE AUTHORS’ CLUB BEST FIRST NOVEL AWARD 2023
SHORTLISTED FOR THE WILBUR SMITH ADVENTURE WRITING PRIZE 2023
SHORTLISTED FOR THE NOTA BENE PRIZE 2023
Sarajevo, spring 1992. Each night, nationalist gangs erect barricades, splitting the diverse city into ethnic enclaves; each morning, the residents – whether Muslim, Croat or Serb – push the makeshift barriers aside. When violence finally spills over, Zora, an artist and teacher, sends her husband and elderly mother to safety with her daughter in England.
Reluctant to believe that hostilities will last more than a handful of weeks, she stays behind while the city falls under siege. As the assault deepens and everything they love is laid to waste, black ashes floating over the rooftops, Zora and her friends are forced to rebuild themselves, over and over. Theirs is a breathtaking story of disintegration, resilience and hope.
Paperback, 288 pages, published April 2023.
About Priscilla Morris:
Priscilla Morris is the daughter of a Yugoslav mother and a Cornish father. She grew up in London, spending summers in Sarajevo, and studied at Cambridge University and the University of East Anglia, where she gained her PhD in Creative Writing. She teaches at University College Dublin and currently lives County Monaghan, Ireland.
In 1993, Priscilla’s father bought a flak jacket and went to Sarajevo to rescue her maternal grandparents. Her teenage London home soon filled with refugee relatives, including her mother’s uncle, a renowned landscape painter whose life’s work was destroyed during the siege. His dramatic story, alongside many months spent in Sarajevo researching the war and interviewing those who experienced it, inspired Priscilla to write Black Butterflies, her debut novel.
Author photo by Conor Horgan, @Conor Horgan
'I gasped, laughed, and wept my way through it' KHALED HOSSEINI
AN OBSERVER BEST NEW NOVELIST FOR 2024
SHORTLISTED FOR THE WILBUR SMITH ADVENTURE WRITING PRIZE 2024
Tbilisi's littered with memories that await me like landmines. The dearly departed voices I silenced long ago have come back without my permission. The situation calls for someone with a plan. I didn't even bring toothpaste.
Saba's father is missing, and the trail leads back to Tbilisi, Georgia.
It's been two decades since Irakli fled his war-torn homeland with two young sons, now grown men. Two decades since he saw their mother, who stayed so they could escape. At long last, Tbilisi has lured him home. But when Irakli's phone calls stop, a mystery begins...
Arriving in the city as escaped zoo animals prowl the streets, Saba picks up the trail of clues: strange graffiti, bewildering messages transmitted through the radio, pages from his father's unpublished manuscript scattered like breadcrumbs. As the voices of those left behind pull at the edges of his world, Saba will discover that all roads lead back to the past, and to secrets swallowed up by the great forests of Georgia.
In a winding pursuit through the magic and mystery of returning to a lost homeland, Hard by a Great Forest is a rare, searching tale of home, memory and sacrifice – of one family's mission to rescue one another, and put the past to rest.
Hardback, 352 pages, published 30th January 2024.
About Leo Vardiashvili: