What can literature do in times of war?
Join novelist and political scientist Rachid Benzine for the UK publication of The Man Who Read Books, for a conversation on literature in times of crisis with Dr Joseph Ford. His work, across fiction, essays and theatre, engages with questions of memory, transmission and belief.
His latest novel, L’homme qui lisait des livres (Julliard, 2025), follows an elderly bookseller in Gaza who turns to literature as the world around him collapses. Shakespeare, Victor Hugo, Primo Levi, Franz Fanon and Mahmoud Darwish accompany him as he reads and remembers. The novel is published in English by Canongate on 5 November 2026, in a translation by Sam Taylor.
The conversation will use the novel as a starting point to consider what literature can offer in moments of violence and upheaval.
The discussion will be followed by a Q&A with the audience and a book signing, with titles available in French from our partner bookshop, La Page.
Bookings opening soon
Ciné Lumière
In Conversation with Rachid Benzine
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Sold by: institut-francais.org.uk
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Join novelist and political scientist Rachid Benzine for the UK publication of The Man Who Read Books, for a conversation on literature in times of crisis with Dr Joseph Ford. His work, across fiction, essays and theatre, engages with questions of memory, transmission and belief.
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