Camilla Grudova book launch at Blackwell’s

Sarah-Clare Conlon, Literature Editor

Book now

CHILDREN OF PARADISE - Camilla Grudova in conversation with Naomi Frisby

12 July 2022

Always double check opening hours with the venue before making a special visit.

Author Camilla Grudova
Author Camilla Grudova
Book now

Head to Blackwell’s book store for the Manchester launch of Camilla Grudova’s debut novel, Children Of Paradise, and hear from an acclaimed new author who has been compared to Angela Carter and Margaret Atwood. Following a reading, Camilla – whose fiction has appeared in The White Review and Granta – will be in conversation with host Naomi Frisby of Manchester Literature Festival, and signing copies of the new book.

Children Of Paradise follows Camilla’s critically acclaimed “ambitious and exquisitely conceived” short story collection, The Doll’s Alphabet, which was published by indie Fitzcarraldo Editions.

Described as surreal and uneasy, Children Of Paradise charts the fates of a ragtag group of cinema workers who are spat out by corporate takeover. Since Camilla Grudova works as an usherette in Edinburgh, where she lives, we can only imagine there’s at least some truth in the story, published by Atlantic Books. Here’s the blurb: “When Holly applies for a job at the Paradise – one of the city’s oldest cinemas, squashed into the ground floor of a block of flats – she thinks it will be like any other shift work. She cleans toilets, sweeps popcorn, avoids the belligerent old owner, Iris, and is ignored by her aloof but tight-knit colleagues who seem as much a part of the building as its fraying carpets and endless dirt. Dreadful, lonely weeks pass while she longs for their approval, a silent voyeur. So when she finally gains the trust of this cryptic band of oddballs, Holly transforms from silent drudge to rebellious insider and gradually she too becomes part of the Paradise – unearthing its secrets, learning its history and haunting its corridors after hours with the other ushers. It is no surprise when violence strikes, tempers change and the group, eyes still affixed to the screen, starts to rapidly go awry…”

Children Of Paradise follows Camilla’s critically acclaimed “ambitious and exquisitely conceived” short story collection, The Doll’s Alphabet, which was published by indie Fitzcarraldo Editions in 2017, who said: “By constantly reinventing ways to engage with her obsessions and motifs, Camilla Grudova has come up with a method for storytelling that is highly imaginative, incredibly original, and absolutely discomfiting.”

Nicola Barker, author of Darkmans, said: “Camilla Grudova is Angela Carter’s natural inheritor. Her style is effortlessly spare and wonderfully seductive. Read her! Love her! She is sincerely strange – a glittering literary gem in a landscape awash with paste and glue and artificial settings.”

Deborah Levy, author of Hot Milk, meanwhile, said: “Marvellous. Grudova understands that the best writing has to pull off the hardest aesthetic trick – it has to be both memorable and fleeting.”
Children of Paradise by Camilla Grudova
Children of Paradise by Camilla Grudova

Where to go near Camilla Grudova book launch at Blackwell’s

shop
Stretford
Shopping Centre
Stretford Mall

Stretford Mall has undergone a major transformation, turning a 60s shopping centre into a vibrant, community-led town centre. Led by Trafford Council and Bruntwood Works.

Penistone Hill Country Park
Bradford
Park
Penistone Hill Country Park

As part of Bradford 2025’s UK City of Culture programme, Penistone Hill plays host to outdoor events that celebrate the enduring connection between landscape, identity and creativity.

Threshold is an artist-led project space for sculpture, located in the front garden of a traditional back-to-back house in Burley, Leeds. Exhibitions are open for all to view. Encounter sculpture on your daily walk, or way to work or school.
Leeds
Event venue
Threshold Leeds

Threshold is an artist-led project space for sculpture, located in the front garden of a traditional back-to-back house in Burley, Leeds.

The Engine Room Notice Board
Southport
Event venue
The Engine Room

The Engine Room is a creative community hub in Southport’s Wayfarers Arcade, offering co-working space, cultural events and collaborative opportunities for artists, freelancers and educators.

Leeds
Gallery
The Mill Gallery

The Mill Gallery is an artist-run space in Leeds, supporting emerging artists to develop and showcase their work authentically.

Church congregation at St George's Church in Leeds
Leeds
Place of worship
St George’s Church

St George’s is a lively city centre church in Leeds with three services every Sunday and a midweek programme that includes groups, courses and events. We’re here to help people

Picante
Liverpool
Restaurant
Picante

Picante is a sun-soaked Mexican restaurant at the trailblazing Cains Brewery Village in Liverpool.

Miru Mill
Manchester
Event venue
Miru Mill

Miru Mill is an event space and micro-factory based at Churchgate Mill in Stockport.

What's on: Literature

An image of Dame Maggie Aderin-Pocock, a black middle-aged woman with long hair in a red top, looking directly at the camera with a warm expression. Look for a book
Until
FamiliesManchester
Look for a Book

Kick off Festival of Libraries 2025 with out-of-this-world book searching across Manchester.

Free entry
Tom Branfoot. Photo Eleanor Hall, Museum of the Home
LiteratureWest Yorkshire
Poetry at the Dusty Miller

Poetry at the Dusty Miller is a now regular night with invited readers, organised by Carcanet-published Carola Luther and Judith Willson in the Coiners’ Room in the Mytholmroyd pub.

Free entry
Andrew McMillan and Maria Ferguson
LiteratureLeeds
Leeds Lit Fest 2025

The award-winning Leeds Lit Fest is back, this year running from 14 to 22 June 2025, and bringing together local talent and big-name authors for a lively programme.

From £0.00
SLAMCHESTER Poster
LiteratureManchester
SLAMCHESTER at 53Two

This June, Manchester welcomes the launch of SLAMCHESTER, a one-night-only spoken word slam featuring a a special performance by Jardel Rodrigues.

From £6.00

Culture Guides

A young boy with a white sash around his left arm cries.
Cinema in the North

Outdoor cinema announcements, a major retrospective at HOME, and the best of indie cinema.

Theatre in Manchester and the North
Theatre in the North

Experimental performance, thought-provoking new writing and our picks of Manchester International Festival - here’s what’s taking centre stage this summer.

Isabel Galleymore in conversation
Literature Events in the North

There's a lot of experimentation going on in our Literature guide, from poets playing with form to short story writers looking long.

Music in the North

Gigs are coming in hot this spring – from long-awaited returns to one-off happenings you’ll blink and miss if you're not careful.

Experience a unique deep listening art installation inviting audiences to lay down and be bathed in sound and light.
Exhibitions in the North

From city-wide art festivals to open-air sculptural installations, we have exhibitions from all around the North, both indoors and out.