Edinburgh Book Festival & Booker International

Thursday 29 April | 7.30pm GMT

Since she published her debut novel Celestine in 2015, Olga Ravn has come to be regarded as one of the most influential writers in contemporary Danish literature. Her new book, The Employees, is a precisely-constructed jewel that takes readers aboard the Six-Thousand Ship as it hurtles through the far-flung universe in the 22nd century. As humans and humanoids give witness statements in testimony to their life in space, it becomes increasingly clear that the occupants of this spaceship are moving towards an uneasy climax that mirrors our own capitalism-driven existential crisis. Brilliantly translated into English by award-winning translator Martin Aitken, whose own work spans Danish and Norwegian literature, The Employees is a small masterpiece. Ravn and Aitken discuss their work with Scotland-based writer Heather Parry.

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