Join us for an evening of conversation with writer Farah Ali to discuss her extraordinary new novel, Telegraphy - a mesmerising and ambitious exploration of the body, memory, and the invisible threads that connect us across time and place. Published by CB editions in January 2026.
Growing up in Pakistan, Annie experiences the death of her mother, goes to college in Karachi, falls in love with a singer in a band, marries the wrong man, and all her life has visions and illnesses no doctor can explain.
Signals are received by the body from across time and space. Interwoven with Annies story are a series of haunting narratives: Vesalius stealing the corpse of a hanged man, a visit to the 17th-century Dutch anatomist Frederik Ruysch, letters exchanged between friends in the Ottoman Empire, a familys centuries-long dispersal after an earthquake in 23 CE, and a man stepping onto a landmine in contemporary Waziristan.
Telegraphy connects the mythical with the real, the past with the present, and the personal with the collective - a bold, lyrical meditation on the fragility and endurance of the human body.
Farah Aliis a writer and translator from Pakistan. Her books include the short-story collection People Want to Live and the novel The River , The Town . Her fiction has appeared in The Pushcart Prize, Best Small Fictions, Virginia Quarterly Review, Kenyon Review and Ecotone, among others. She is also the co-founder of Lakeer , a digital space for writing and art from Pakistan.
CB editionspublishes short fiction, poetry, translations and work that might otherwise fall through the cracks between the big publishers. Founded in 2007, the press has built a reputation for publishing risk-taking and beautifully produced books. Its titles have won prizes for fiction, poetry, and translation, and have been shortlisted for many more. CB editions receives no Arts Council funding and relies entirely on book sales to stay afloat.
This in-person conversation between Farah Aliand Opt Indie Books will explore the making of Telegraphy , the porous boundaries between history and invention, and how the body becomes a vessel for memory, trauma, and imagination.
Growing up in Pakistan, Annie experiences the death of her mother, goes to college in Karachi, falls in love with a singer in a band, marries the wrong man, and all her life has visions and illnesses no doctor can explain.
Signals are received by the body from across time and space. Interwoven with Annies story are a series of haunting narratives: Vesalius stealing the corpse of a hanged man, a visit to the 17th-century Dutch anatomist Frederik Ruysch, letters exchanged between friends in the Ottoman Empire, a familys centuries-long dispersal after an earthquake in 23 CE, and a man stepping onto a landmine in contemporary Waziristan.
Telegraphy connects the mythical with the real, the past with the present, and the personal with the collective - a bold, lyrical meditation on the fragility and endurance of the human body.
Farah Aliis a writer and translator from Pakistan. Her books include the short-story collection People Want to Live and the novel The River , The Town . Her fiction has appeared in The Pushcart Prize, Best Small Fictions, Virginia Quarterly Review, Kenyon Review and Ecotone, among others. She is also the co-founder of Lakeer , a digital space for writing and art from Pakistan.
CB editionspublishes short fiction, poetry, translations and work that might otherwise fall through the cracks between the big publishers. Founded in 2007, the press has built a reputation for publishing risk-taking and beautifully produced books. Its titles have won prizes for fiction, poetry, and translation, and have been shortlisted for many more. CB editions receives no Arts Council funding and relies entirely on book sales to stay afloat.
This in-person conversation between Farah Aliand Opt Indie Books will explore the making of Telegraphy , the porous boundaries between history and invention, and how the body becomes a vessel for memory, trauma, and imagination.
Event Dates
| Date | Available Ticket Types | Ticket Price | Book Tickets |
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29th March 2026, 6:00pm |
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| Book Now |
