- Venue
- Brixton tube station
- Date
- Sunday, December 8, 2019
12:00 AM - Address
- Brixton Road London SW9 8HE
- Location
- London
- Organiser
- Museum of Walking
Stella Duffy lost in Loughborough Junction
Continuing our Between the Lines walking reader’s book club we return to London to Loughborough Junction, one of its least gentrified neighbourhoods. Set in a neighbourhood that was created by the criss-crossing of railway lines created by rival companies, Stella Duffy‘s novel “The Room of Lost Things” is a wonderful atmospheric evocation of place, worthy of being explored in our next Between the Lines reading walking book club.
It is as much a love story as a social critique of multi-cultural London. The story of Robert Sutton, the owner of a well-established dry cleaners in Loughborough Junction, that has witnessed the comes and goings of the local residents, and has built up a secret knowledge of their lives and livelihoods.
Ever wondered what happens to things left behind in the pockets of items taken to the dry cleaners? Well Robert Sutton knows only too well.
Duffy brilliantly portrays this hermit-like figure as he comes to sell his dry cleaners to Akeel, a budding entrepreneurial British muslim 20 something year-old from east London. The clash in cultures, aspirations and expectations are deftly revealed as the hide-away of unclaimed items is slowly exposed.
Stella Duffy writes: “I LOVE the idea of this. #TheRoomofLostThings is a favourite of my own books and it’s rooted in #loughboroughjunction people & place, now & then. And male friendship. It’s a book of male friendship.”
Ali Smith wrote that “Stella Duffy is a writer who never lets you down, and this is her most ambitious, satisfying book yet.” Similarly Isobel Montgommery in The Guardian described the novel as “satisfyingly mesmerising.”
Ticket prices: Early bird £12 before 30 November / £15 thereafter / £20 on the day / Concession £12 On-line booking closes at midnight 7 December
Book tickets:
https://www.museumofwalking.org.uk/events/stella-duffy-lost-in-loughborough-junction/
