Book Club: Elif Shafak In Conversation

Proudly presented in partnership with the Women's Prize

We're thrilled to welcome acclaimed author Elif Shafak to The Gate to celebrate the release of her new novel, In One Brief Moment All Eternity.

Elif will appear live in conversation with Claire Shanahan, Executive Director of the Women's Prize Trust, and will be signing copies of the book after the event. Join Elif to discover what drew her to the women history overlooked, how she brought their voices to life, and the power of reclaiming their stories.

In One Brief Moment All Eternity will be available to purchase on the night, courtesy of BookBar.

Elif Shafak is an award-winning British-Turkish novelist and storyteller. She has published 21 books, including 10 Minutes 38 Seconds In This Strange World, shortlisted for the Booker Prize and RSL Ondaatje Prize; The Architect’s Apprentice, chosen for The Queen’s Reading Room; and There Are Rivers In the Sky, winner of the Edward Stanford Award 2025, Prix Fragonard de Littérature Étrangère, and finalist for the Prix Fémina Étranger and The Orwell Prize for Political Fiction. Shafak is a Fellow and President of the Royal Society of Literature, and has been chosen among BBC’s 100 most inspiring and influential women.

Presented in partnership with Dark Matter as part of Picturehouse's Book Club, bringing your bookshelf to the big screens.

ABOUT IN ONE BRIEF MOMENT ALL ETERNITY
During a time of great turmoil, Gustave Flaubert created literature's most scandalous heroine: Madame Bovary. He then poisoned her with arsenic. But what if, 175 years later, Emma – and the women history overlooked – could seize the quill from his hands and tell a different story?

In One Brief Moment All Eternity is a luminous reinvention of an iconic male writer, told through the eyes of the women – real and fictional – who shaped him: a devoted nursemaid, an Egyptian dancer and a passionate, jealous lover who refuses to be forgotten.

Through their voices, visionary author Elif Shafak creates both an intimate portrait of a great artist and an epic meditation on storytelling itself: who gets remembered, who gets erased, and how can literature endure through political upheaval, war and injustice?