How can people move on from conflict and trauma, and overcome seemingly unbridgeable divides or intractable circumstances? In her latest novel, award-winning author Elif Shafak explores belonging and identity, love and trauma, nature and renewal through a story of two teenagers in 1970s Cyprus, from opposite sides of a divided land who seek refuge in a taverna to forget the sorrows of the world outside.
In conversation with Professor Tomila Lankina, whose latest book explores the legacies of Tsarist Russia and the Russian revolution and how they continue to shape Russian society today, she will explore what we as a society, and as individuals, can do to bring about a better post-COVID world.
Meet our speaker and chair
Elif Shafak (@Elif_Safak) is an award-winning British-Turkish novelist whose work has been translated into 55 languages. The author of 19 books, 12 of which are novels, she is a bestselling author in many countries around the world. Shafak's novel 10 Minutes 38 Seconds in this Strange World was shortlisted for the Booker Prize and RSL Ondaatje Prize; longlisted for the Dublin Literary Award; and chosen as Blackwell's Book of the Year. Her previous novel, The Forty Rules of Love was chosen by the BBC as one of 100 Novels That Shaped Our World. In 2021, Shafak's The Architect's Apprentice was chosen for the Duchess of Cornwall's inaugural book club, The Reading Room.
Tomila Lankina (@TomilaLankina) is Professor of International Relations in the Department of International Relations at LSE. Tomila Lankina’s current research focuses on comparative democracy and authoritarianism, mass protests and historical patterns of human capital and democratic reproduction in Russia and other states. Her latest book The Estate Origins of Democracy in Russia: From Imperial Bourgeoisie to Post-Communist Middle Class (Cambridge University Press 2022) is on the long-term patterns of reproduction of social structure in Russia from the Tzarist times to the present and on why these legacies matter for democracy, development and social inequalities.
More about this event
This event is part of the LSE Festival: How Do We Get to a Post-COVID World? running from Monday 13 to Saturday 18 June 2022, with a series of events exploring the practical steps we could be taking to shape a better world.
Twitter hashtags for this event: #LSEFestival
Podcast & Video
A podcast of this event is available to download from How to Move On
A video of this event is available to watch at How to Move On
Podcasts and videos of many LSE events can be found at the LSE Public Lectures and Events: podcasts and videos channel.