Leïla Slimani is the best-selling author of the compulsive thriller Lullaby, a Sunday Times Top 100 Novel of the 21st Century and for which she won France’s most prestigious literary prize, the Prix Goncourt. Her other books include Adèle, Sex and Lies, and the no. 1 international bestsellers The Country of Others and Watch Us Dance, parts of a trilogy of novels based on her family’s roots in revolutionary Morocco.

Until recently she was French president Emmanuel Macron’s personal representative for the promotion of the French language and culture, was Chair of the 2023 International Booker Prize jury and was ranked #2 on Vanity Fair France’s list of the Fifty Most Influential French People in the World. Emily Perkins meets the celebrated author, journalist and former diplomat in a wide-ranging conversation about her remarkable life and work.

On medical grounds, Leïla Slimani is sadly no longer able to appear at Auckland Writers Festival Waituhi o Tāmaki. Ticket buyers will be contacted by Ticketmaster.