The Comfort of Distant Stars: An evening with I.O. Echeruo

I.O. Echeruo is coming to Lighthouse on Tuesday 27 October, for the Edinburgh launch of his novel The Comfort of Distant Stars. It's a coming-of-age story that pulls together physics, philosophy and Igbo cosmology, and asks how we understand our place in the universe. The book was a finalist for the Orwell Prize for Fiction, and it touches on neurodivergence, mental health, science, myth, belief and human connection. If you're into Chigozie Obioma and Akwaeke Emezi, this is right in that neighbourhood.

Echeruo's debut story collection, Expert in All Styles, came out through the Nigerian publisher Farafina, and his short fiction has appeared in Transition and Eclectica; he lives and works between Lagos and Accra. He'll be joined by T.L. Huchu, who's chairing the evening. Huchu wrote the Edinburgh Nights series, which closed with the BSFA-shortlisted Secrets of the First School, and his short fiction has appeared in Lightspeed, Interzone and Analog Science Fiction as well as on BBC Radio 4.

Lighthouse runs a year-round programme of events, with the Book Fringe in August and the Radical Book Fair in November as its biggest titles. The evening is on Tuesday 27 October, 7pm to 8pm, at Lighthouse - Edinburgh's Radical Bookshop, 43-45 West Nicolson Street, Edinburgh EH8 9DB.