What's On

On sale Fri 19 Jun 2026 at 10am

About

Join Manchester Literature Festival for a special afternoon with one of today’s most influential and much-loved literary voices.

Internationally-acclaimed novelist Elif Shafak returns to celebrate her extraordinary new novel, In One Brief Moment All Eternity. Spanning decades and continents, from revolutionary 19th-century France to Istanbul, Egypt and Beirut, this luminous and deeply moving story explores creativity and resistance in times of political upheaval and war. Reimagining the life of Gustave Flaubert through the real and fictional women who shaped him, Elif Shafak builds a fascinating bridge between Western prose and Eastern poetry and offers a powerful meditation on literature’s enduring role in a fractured world.

Elif Shafak is a multi award-winning British-Turkish novelist and storyteller. She has published 21 books, translated into almost 60 languages, including 10 Minutes 38 Seconds in this Strange World and The Island of Missing Trees. A President of the Royal Society of Literature, she has twice been shortlisted for the Booker Prize and is a strong advocate for women’s rights, LGBTQ+ rights and freedom of expression.

2.30pm / Doors
3pm / Start

Tickets

Full Price + Book £38
Full Price £23

Access seating

If you have step-free accessible seating requirements or require a wheelchair position, please contact the RNCM Box Office by emailing [email protected] or phoning 0161 907 5555. Emails are monitored throughout the week. RNCM phone lines are open on Mondays and Thursdays between 2pm and 5pm. Please note this excludes bank holidays.

The end time for this event is tbc. More details will be published nearer to the event.