3 of the hottest debut authors at the Emirates LitFest 2021
The Emirates Airline Festival of Literature runs from January 29 until February 13…
As we gear up for the Emirates Airline Festival of Literature, the team at the Emirates Literature Foundation is busy rereading some of the fantastic novels by attending authors. Here are three debut authors that we are all particularly excited about welcoming to the Festival.
That Reminds Me, by Derek Owusu
This is the story of K.
K is sent into care before his first birthday. He grows up in fields and woods, and he is happy, he thinks. When K is eleven, he is returned to unknown parents. The fields are traded for flats. Slowly, he finds friends. Eventually, he finds love. But as he grows, he begins to realise that he needs more than the city can provide. He is a man made of pieces. Pieces that are slowly breaking apart.
That Reminds Me is the story of a man, told in fragments of memory. It is a deeply moving and completely original work of literature from one of the brightest British writers today.
Love in Colour, by Bolu Babalola
This book of short stories is a celebration of pre-colonial love stories. Bolu has sought out the most beautiful tales and rewritten them with new detail and often a feminist take for the modern era. We get magical folktales from West Africa, Greek myths, ancient legends from the Middle East and more.
You might also like
Bolu is a powerful advocate for romance as a genre, and the way she treats it, it is anything but lightweight. Instead, you’ll find courage and power between the pages of this book.
My Sister the Serial Killer, by Oyinkan Braithwaite
Imagine getting a call from your sister, who sounds as if she’s in distress. I need you, she says. He is dead.
Our protagonist is surprisingly calm when this happens, because this is not the first time. Korede knows what is expected. She brings bleach, rubber gloves, nerves of steel and a strong stomach. When you love your family, you choose to believe them when they say self-defence. Until your sister sets her sights on your own secret crush.
Too hard to classify, this book combines crime and dark humour. There is nothing quite like it, and you will not regret picking this up next.
See the full line-up for the 2021 Emirates LitFest and get your tickets on the website. You can also tune in to the Boundless Book Club podcast, where you’ll find the team talking in greater detail about dome of the great books by authors coming to the Festival; you can find it here, and on all your favourite podcast platforms.
