Anne Enright in Conversation with Megan Nolan

‘One of the most significant writers of her generation’ (Sunday Times) discusses The Wren, The Wren, a meditation on the love between a mother and daughter, the traces left by trauma, and coming to terms with the saga of family history, in a conversation with Megan Nolan.

Nell – funny, brave – is a young woman setting out into the world. But she finds her family history hard to escape. For her mother, Carmel, Nell's leaving home opens a space in her heart, where the turmoil of a lifetime begins to churn. And across the generations falls the long shadow of Carmel's famous father, an Irish poet of beautiful words and brutal actions. This is a meditation on love: spiritual, romantic, or darkly sexual. A generational saga that traces the inheritance not just of trauma but also of wonder. Above all, it is an exploration of the love between mother and daughter – sometimes fierce, often painful, but always transcendent.

Anne Enright was born in Dublin, where she now lives and works. She has written two collections of stories, published together as Yesterday's Weather, one book of non-fiction, Making Babies, and seven novels, including The Gathering, which won the 2007 Man Booker Prize; The Forgotten Waltz, which was awarded the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction; and The Green Road, which was the Bord Gáis Energy Novel of the Year and won the Kerry Group Irish Fiction Award. In 2015 she was appointed as the first Laureate for Irish Fiction, and in 2018 she received the Irish PEN Award for Outstanding Contribution to Irish Literature. She is also the recipient of the 2022 Irish Book Awards Lifetime Achievement Award.

Megan Nolan was born in 1990 in Waterford, Ireland and is currently based in London. Her essays and reviews have been published by the New York Times, White Review, Guardian, and Frieze, among others. Her debut novel, Acts of Desperation was the recipient of a Betty Trask Award, shortlisted for the Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year Award and longlisted for the Dylan Thomas Prize.

Doors will open from 6:45pm.

Tickets: £8 General Admission / £22 Book and Ticket, inc. a copy of The Wren, The Wren (RRP £18.99)

Venue: The Auditorium (Level 6) at Foyles, 107 Charing Cross Road*

*Please note that the Auditorium at Foyles is fully accessible from the Ground floor lifts.