Han Smith‘s ‘tender and merciless’ (Abigail Shinn) debut, Portraits at the Palace of Creativity and Wrecking, will be the topic of discussion in an evening of literary conversation at Waterstones, Islington on Thursday, 27th February.

The event will begin at 18:30; kill two birds with one stone and purchase a ticket and paperback copy of the book here.

Han will be joined by Lara Haworth, whose novel Monumenta will also be discussed. The discussion will be chaired by publishing freelancer Rali Chorbadzhiyska, and the authors will discuss writing about the past, reflecting on its formative nature and exploring how it shapes our ability to step into the future.

The almost daughter is almost normal, because she knows how to know and also not know.

She knows and does not know, for instance, about the barracks by the athletics field, and about the lonely woman she visits each week. She knows—almost—about ghosts, and their ghosts, and she knows not to have questions about them. She knows to focus on being a woman: on training her body and dreaming only of escape.

Then, the almost daughter meets Oksana. Oksana is not even almost normal, and the questions she has are not normal at all.

Portraits at the Palace of Creativity and Wrecking is a story of seeing and part-seeing, of silence and speaking out, of conformation and confrontation, by an exhilarating new voice in fiction.

Portraits at the Palace of Creativity and Wrecking is out now. Grab your copy here or, better, via your local bookshop or Bookshop.org.

Follow Han on Twitter @Han_Smiff.