Eimear McBride - The City Changes Its Face
WithEimear McBride
In conversation withSasha de Buyl
On:25th February 2025, 7:00pm - 8:00pm
Attendance options:
We are so happy that Eimear McBride is coming to Portobello to discuss her brand new novel, The City Changes Its Face. Intimate, experiential, and immersive, The City Changes Its Face explores a passionate love affair tested to its limits. McBride will be in conversation with writer and programmer Sasha de Buyl.
This event will take place in the bookshop with an in-person audience, as well as a livestream for attendees watching from home. There will be a signing after the event.
In-person vouchers can be redeemed on the night of the event against a single copy of The City Changes Its Face – we will have a list of attendees with vouchers to be redeemed. Please note that only one voucher can be redeemed per book. Livestream vouchers are valid until the day after the event and can be redeemed on our website against a single copy of The City Changes Its Face.
About The City Changes Its Face:
‘Day. Another. London city and world. There before me as you were. I still see you as I saw you and long to be you, as I was you, all the way over again.’
1995. London. Outside the filthy window, the city rushes by. But up in the flat, there is only Eily and Stephen, nineteen and thirty-nine. The total obsession of new love.
Eighteen months later, a rainy Camden night. Eily and Stephen retrace the course of their two-year romance now their world is merging with the commonplace and ties from the past are intruding. Stephen has reconnected with his long-lost teenage daughter Grace. Eily thinks about the future and their flat feels different.
The city changes its face.
Please note: Tickets for our events are non-refundable. Professional photography and videography may take place during this event. Thank you for your understanding.
Participants:
Eimear McBride Author
Eimear McBride grew up in the west of Ireland and trained at Drama Centre London. Her first novel, A Girl is a Half-formed Thing, took nine years to find a publisher and subsequently received a number of awards, including the Baileys Women’s Prize for Fiction, Kerry Group Irish Novel of the Year, and the Goldsmiths Prize. Her second novel, The Lesser Bohemians, won the 2016 James Tait Black Memorial Prize, and was shortlisted for the Goldsmiths Prize and the International Dublin Literary Award. In 2017 she was awarded the inaugural Creative Fellowship of the Beckett Research Centre, University of Reading. Strange Hotel, her third novel, was published in 2020. In 2022 she wrote and directed A Very Short Film About Longing (DMC/BBC Film) which was selected to screen in the 2023 London Film Festival.
Sasha de Buyl Chair
Sasha de Buyl is a writer and programmer from Cork. Their writing has been published in The Stinging Fly, Belfield Literary Review and Gutter, among others. Most recently, they were Programme Director for International Literature Festival Dublin and in 2023 acted as Guest Curator for StAnza, Scotland's International Poetry Festival. From 2019 - 2022, they were the Director of Cúirt International Festival of Literature in Galway, Ireland. They are currently undertaking a DFA in Creative Writing at the University of Glasgow.
The venue
The Portobello Bookshop
46 Portobello High Street
Edinburgh
EH15 1DA
Telephone: 0131 629 6756
Website: www.theportobellobookshop.com
Wheelchair Access
We have a ramp at the front of the shop which has a ratio of 1:10 and loading capacity of 300kg, and so should be able to be used by most wheelchair users or those with mobility vehicles. The front doors are fully automated. Our shop interior is designed to allow access throughout for wheelchair users and prams, though please note there is only 700mm wide clearance to access the staff toilet.
Sound
We use a PA system to enhance the audio at our live events. We also have a hearing loop system installed, if you’d like to use our loop system during an event please let us know and we’ll make sure we have it set up and connected to the live audio feed during the event. If you wish to attend an event and require BSL interpretation, please give us a few weeks notice and we’ll do our best to arrange an interpreter.