Sebastian Faulks for Farewell to Eden

Sebastian Faulks will be at The Creative Centre on Friday 18 September, talking about his new novel, Farewell to Eden. It's a sweeping story set in the aftermath of the Second World War, and the evening is built around it.

The book follows Philip Deval, a soldier returned from the beaches of Normandy who arrives in Palestine on a peace-keeping mission during the final days of the British Mandate, near the Sea of Galilee. Years later, he's teaching at a school in the English countryside when he meets Frances Darwood, an enigmatic music mistress whose company draws him back to the secrets and scars of his past. It's described as a profound story about faith in all its forms and a rich portrait of an embattled post-war Britain, asking how, after great suffering, we retain our humanity and believe in a better life.

Faulks is a writer with a long reach. He's written nineteen books, and A Week in December and The Fatal Englishman both reached number one on the Sunday Times bestseller list. He's best known for Birdsong, part of his French trilogy, and Human Traces, the first in an ongoing Austrian trilogy. If you've followed his work, you'll know he tends to look at the 20th century from the inside, and Farewell to Eden fits right into that.

The talk is at The Creative Centre, York St John University, Lord Mayors Walk, York YO31 7EX. It starts at 7pm, with doors opening at 6.30pm.