The Architect's Apprentice

Elif Shafak is an award-winning British Turkish novelist whose work has been translated into 55 languages. The author of more than 20 books, including 12 novels, she is a bestselling author in many countries around the world. Shafak's novel, The Island of Missing Trees, was a top ten Sunday Times bestseller, a Reese Witherspoon Book Club pick and was shortlisted for the Costa Novel Award and the Women's Prize. An earlier novel 10 Minutes 38 Seconds in this Strange World was shortlisted for the Booker Prize and the RSL Ondaatje Prize; longlisted for the Dublin Literary Award; and chosen as Blackwell's Book of the Year. Other works include: The Bastard of Istanbul; The Forty Rules of Love; Honour; and a memoir Black Milk. Shafak was awarded the 2021 Halldór Laxness International Literature Prize for her contribution to 'the renewal of the art of storytelling'.

Grant Cartwright is an award-winning actor who has performed extensively in Australia with the Melbourne Theatre Company, Sydney Theatre Company, Malthouse Theatre, La Mama Theatre and many others. A 2005 graduate of the Victorian College of the Arts, Grant returned from New York where he performed with the Manhattan Repertory Theatre and the 45th Street Theater. He frequently lends his voice to many international film productions for English Language dubbing, and among his screen credits is the HBO mini-series The Pacific.