Louise Doughty on Apple Tree Yard; a new pan-African prize for novelists

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Louise Doughty talks to Mariella Frostrup about her psychological thriller Apple Tree Yard. When a successful fifty-two year old scientist has her first and only affair, she discovers the consequences of the decisions we make. A geographical melting pot of nations, the Balkans have a long and turbulent history; the area was a flash pot for rising nationalism at the beginning of the 20th century, the location for the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand that triggered the First World War and in the 1990's the former Yugoslavia was the setting for one of the bloodiest civil wars in European history. Fiona Sampson and Vesna Goldsworthy discuss how such a complicated past has informed the literature of the present and how writers from the region have continued to respond to challenging and changing times. Ellah Allfrey discusses the launch of The Etisalat prize for literature. Open to debut novelists who hold an African passport, it has been set up to recognise writers and the publishing industry across the African Continent.