We're thrilled to welcome Miriam Robinson to the bookshop to discuss her blistering debut about the collapse of a marriage that had begun and will end in the shadow of Notre Dame Cathedral. In conversation with Adam Biles.

Free & open to all. Places limited. Arrive early to avoid disappointment. Most events take place on our first floor, which is accessible by stairs. If you have any concerns about access, please don't hesitate to contact us.

And Notre Dame is Burning tells the story of a woman whose marriage starts to fall apart in the wake of a miscarriage and her husband’s serial infidelity. It’s a gripping depiction of what happens when truth and time begin to unravel; and one woman's attempt to write herself back to safety.

I find myself wondering what would have happened if I had been more clear. If our relationship had not begun with this one tiny untruth. In order to understand this new story, Esther seeks help - from generations of women, from a book about evolution, from a friendly philosopher/scientist with a solid grasp of the space-time continuum.

Mostly, though, she writes - fragments, notes, letters - tracing a fine line between a story that soothes and one that suffocates; confronting the impossibility of communicating anything in the right way, at the right moment, to her daughter. Esther writes, and rewrites, until time slowly takes shape again.

This extraordinary debut is an excavation of betrayal, of motherhood, of time and timelessness, of guilt and consequence, of love coming to an end. Told with dry wit and a startling ferocity, And Notre Dame is Burning heralds an urgent new voice in literary fiction.

Miriam Robinson is chief strategist at The Booksellers’ Association, and the host of the podcast My Unlived Life. She holds an MA in Creative Writing from Goldsmiths, University of London and her short fiction has been shortlisted for a Pushcart Prize, the inaugural Pindrop/RA Short Story Prize and the Pat Kavanagh Prize. She has also been a Bookseller Rising Star, and has won the Kim Scott Walwyn Award for young women in publishing. Originally from Colorado, Miriam lives in East London with her daughter and their six-toed cat Astrid.