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What is guilt – and how can we escape the grip of the past?

Ceridwen Dovey is the author of the award-winning 2014 short story collection Only the Animals, and the novel Blood Kin. Lately, she’s also been making her mark as a regular essayist for the New Yorker and the Monthly.

In her highly anticipated second novel, In the Garden of the Fugitives, Dovey tells a spellbinding story of obsession, loss, repression and atonement. The narrative unfolds through a series of letters between Royce and Vita – an estranged benefactor and his protégé, each now trying to wriggle free from the astonishing weight of their histories.

In conversation with Elizabeth McCarthy, Dovey talks about our human connections and failings, ideas of guilt and shame, the role of art in coming to terms with the past – and who has a right to bear witness.

Books and Ideas at Montalto series sound design and music: Jon Tjhia.