Alwan will meet his French readers in the Assises Internationales du Roman, in Lyon, on May 28th, 2015. The meeting will take place at the Institut de Formation aux Soins Infirmiers (IFIS) at the “Centre hospitalier Saint-Joseph Saint Luc”, 18:30-20:30.

An interview conducted by Marie-Christine Blais, for La Presse, published in April 10th.
Your narrator, Ghaleb, draws continually striking parallels between beavers he discovered in Oregon and his family who lives in Riyadh. How did you get this idea?
I grew up in Saudi Arabia, where beavers do not exist. My knowledge on the subject was therefore superficial, and I was not interested in it, anyway! It was when I moved to Portland [Oregon], in 2006, to finish my master that I really got to know this animal.

The winner of the International Man Booker Prize will be announced tonight, meanwhile, below is an interview of Hoda Barkat, published by The Guardian on May 13th. Go the The Guardian‘s website for the interviews of all other authors on the shortlist.

With the story of the people of Bsharre, a small Maronite community in the Northern mountains of Lebanon, Barakat tackles the broad and difficult question of minorities in the Middle-East and elsewhere: