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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Entertainment
Claire Armitstead and Tim Maby

Guardian Books podcast: Juan Gabriel Vásquez at A Room for London

A Room for London is a small living space in the shape of the Roi des Belges - the boat in Joseph Conrad's novella The Heart of Darkness, which has been moored on the top of the South Bank as part of the Cultural Olympiad.

For four days every month, as part of a year-long project by Artangel, a writer will stay in it, tasked only with writing an essay on the theme of London, rivers and/ or Conrad. We meet the first occupant, novelist Juan Gabriel Vásquez as he leaves the boat at the end of his four-day stay. And we listen in to the thoughts it inspired in him on Conrad, Colombia and London in the 21st century.

During the year we are live streaming a series of concerts from the Room for London. We have extracted the first one, by violinist Andrew Bird, in the introduction to this podcast. Watch the full concert here
The next A Room for London live stream is Heiner Goebbels at 6pm on Sunday 26 February.

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