The Modern Man in Fiction with Donal Ryan & Elvin James Mensah

Join us with two of our absolute favourite male writers: Donal Ryan and Elvin James Mensah, as their discuss their new books, modern masculinity and male relationships in literature.

Donal Ryan & Where Are The Kings

The tender, exquisite new novel from the winner of the Orwell Prize for Fiction and the Irish Book of the Year. Something terrible has happened to Jack but no one seems to want to talk about it. His uncles can tell him about everything from quantum physics to how to hunt for deer, but they can’t seem to tell him anything about their own sister or why Jack doesn’t feel sad for her in the way he should, or why Grandad tries to shoot Jack’s dad when he gets out of the hospital.

Still, there’s work to be done in the oily wonderland of his uncles’ garage; there’s his beautiful aunt Rose to hypnotise him and his loving grandparents to console him; then there’s JJ, who wants to fight him one day and save him the next. But with so many questions, in a family with so many secrets, it is difficult for Jack to understand the person he is becoming. How can a simple boy learn to become a king?

Elvin James Mensah & White Spaces

The brilliant and beautiful new book from the author of Small Joys.

A hymn to brotherly love and its transcendent power to heal. To the outside world, Teddy seems to have things sorted. A senior editor at a music magazine before turning 30, he's smart, practical and dependable: the one his friends turn to for support when things become complicated.

His old school friends Kain and Nathan have their fair share of issues. Kain is trying to get his music career back on track, while struggling to come to terms with his sexuality, and Nathan is still living with his parents, while working three jobs to help bring up his son. For none of them, however, are things more complicated than they are for Birch. Wayward, unpredictable and impossible not to love, Birch veers impulsively from one calamity to the next but, whenever things get really bad, one person is always there to help him pick up the pieces. But what if things were to get so bad that even Teddy couldn't fix them? And who would be there to fix Teddy if they did? Set in the London of 2012 with a supporting cast of normal and extraordinary characters, White Spaces tells, with Mensah's inimitable warmth and humour, the story of four young Black men coming of age in a city on the cusp of change.

It poses challenging questions about the way we were and the world we were creating, while always holding on to a powerful belief in the strength of love and friendship to overcome the worst that life can throw at us. Hilarious, heartbreaking and hopeful, White Spaces is an unforgettable novel that cements Mensah's reputation as one of the most exciting young British novelists working today.