Listen to author and critic Erica Wagner in conversation with Kaliane Bradley, writer of “The Ministry of Time”, her first novel published by Sceptre in 2024. Through this conversation with Erica Wagner, Kaliane Bradley talks about her passion for writing since childhood, the literary and historical sources that inspired her for this novel, and the power of fiction. Together, they also discuss how her experience as an editor has influenced her work as a writer, and highlight the collaborative aspect of creating a book. 

As part of the Rendez-vous littéraires rue Cambon [Literary Rendezvous at Rue Cambon], the podcast "les Rencontres" highlights the birth of a writer in a series imagined by CHANEL and House ambassador and spokesperson Charlotte Casiraghi.

(00:00 ) Introduction

(00:57 ) Presentation of Kaliane Bradley by Erica Wagner

(04:28 ) On the author’s vocation as a writer

(06:40 ) The sources of inspiration for “The Ministry of Time”

(12:24 ) On the publication process

(15:51 ) Reading an extract of “The Ministry of Time” by Kaliane Bradley

(17:26 ) On her narrative choices

(23:43 ) On her writing process

(25:50 ) On the publishing profession

(27:39 ) On the reception of the book

(32:37 ) On the powers of fiction

(35:14 ) The ending questionnaire of “les Rencontres”

Kaliane Bradley, The Ministry of Time © Hodder & Stoughton, 2024

Normal People © Sally Rooney, 2018 Publisher by Faber and Faber Ltd

Conversations with Friends © Sally Rooney, 2017 Publisher by Faber and Faber Ltd

Emma Donoghue, The Wonder © Little, Brown & Company, 2016

Copyright © 2016 by Emma Donoghue Ltd

Copyright © Alice Birch

Copyright © Sebastián Lelio

Emma Donoghue, The Wonder © Picador, 2016

The Wonder by Emma Donoghue © 2016. Published in Canada by HarperCollins Publishers Ltd

Eleanor Catton, Birnam Wood © Granta Books, 2023

© Eleanor Catton 2023

Birnam Wood by Eleanor Catton. Copyright © 2023 by Eleanor Catton. Used by permission of Farrar, Straus and Giroux. All rights Reserved

© Penguin Classics

© Penguin Press

© Catapult Books

© Granta Books

© The Willowherb Review

© Extra Teeth

© Electric Literature

Kaliane Bradley, The Wishing Dance © Hodder & Stoughton, 2021

Compilation copyright - Pippa Marland & Anita Roy, Gifts of Gravity and Light © Hodder & Stoughton, 2021

© Hodder and Stoughton

© Harper Bazaar

© Royal Society of Literature

Dan Simmons, The Terror © Little, Brown and Company, 2007

Audrey Niffenegger, The Time Traveller’s Wife, Vintage Classic, 2022

Emily St. John Mandel, The Sea of Tranquility, Penguin Books, 2022

Kurt Vonnegut, Slaughterhouse-Five, Penguin Books, 1999

© Sceptre Books

Wikipedia trademark used with permission from the Wikimedia Foundation