An Evening with John Boyne

John Boyne is one of the most successful and critically acclaimed novelists of his generation. Join us to hear him talk about his life, his writing career and his new book The Weight of Angels.

A FARSLEY LIT FEST 2026 EVENT

Like Maggie O'Farrell's Hamnet and Percival Everett's James, in The Weight of Angels, John Boyne explores one of the great what-if stories of modern literature, imagining the life that Oscar Wilde never had. John gives the great Anglo-Irish poet and playwright a fresh new voice and the opportunity to take an entirely different path.

In a career spanning more than 30 years, John has published 15 novels for adults, 6 novellas, 6 novels for younger readers, a short story collection, and a picture book. His most famous book, The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas, was a New York Times No.1 Bestseller, and adapted for film, theatre, opera, and ballet, selling more than 11 million copies worldwide. It is used in schools on every continent to introduce young readers to their study of the Holocaust.

Among his many international bestsellers are The Heart's Invisible Furies, A Ladder to the Sky and All the Broken Places. Between 2023 and 2025, John published his acclaimed novella sequence, Water, Earth, Fire, and Air, which was subsequently collected into one volume, The Elements. 

'John Boyne is one of our best authors writing today. The Weight of Angels is wise, imaginative, funny, and extremely moving. Art and Life, Tragedy and Love, you'll find them all here in this rich and magnificent novel!' - Tan Twan Eng, Booker longlisted author of The House of Doors