Winnie M. Li in Conversation with Ruth Maxey

About this event

We are excited to welcome Winnie M. Li to Waterstones Nottingham to celebrate the release of What We Left Unsaid. Winnie will be in conversation with Ruth Maxey.

What happened on the road will change them forever...

Thirty years ago, Alex, Bonnie and Kevin went on a road trip to the Grand Canyon with their parents. But something cut their journey short, and they never made it there. Something that shifted the dynamic of their family forever.

Today, Alex, Bonnie and Kevin might be siblings, but they've grown apart, each holding heavy secrets close to their chests. When their mother's health takes a turn for the worse, she asks them to relive that old road trip to see her, and they're forced into close quarters once more.

As the siblings retrace old steps on an epic journey along Route 66, they are led to finally share the parts of their lives they've tried to keep hidden. Along the way, they can learn the truth of what really happened in their fractured past - a past they now have the chance to mend.

With 'powerful and beautiful writing' (Sarah Pearse, New York Times bestselling author), Winnie M Li weaves an emotive and eye-opening exploration of family, race, growing up, and what it means to be American.

Winnie will talk about her new book with Ruth, before an audience Q&A and book signing.

Winnie M Li is the author of three novels and Assistant Professor in Creative Writing at the University of Birmingham. A former film producer, her debut Dark Chapter won The Guardian’s Not The Booker Prize, was nominated for an Edgar Award, and translated into ten languages. She has since adapted it for the screen. Her follow-up Complicit was a New York Times Editors’ Choice and shortlisted for the Royal Society of Literature’s Encore Award. Her most recent novel What We Left Unsaid has been called ‘heartbreaking, beautiful, and confronting’ by Sarah Winman.  Winnie’s writing often explores gender and racial inequality, trauma, and displacement. Her social media posts on survivorhood and recovery often go viral, with over 30 million views in total.  Winnie holds a PhD from the London School of Economics in Media and Communications and an honorary doctorate from the National University of Ireland.

Ruth Maxey, Associate Professor of Modern American Literature, University of Nottingham, is the author of South Asian Atlantic Literature, 1970–2010 (2012) and Understanding Bharati Mukherjee (2019) and editor of India at 70: Interdisciplinary Perspectives (2019), 21st Century US Historical Fiction: Contemporary Responses to the Past (2020), The Collected Short Stories of Bharati Mukherjee (2023) and Power Plays in Transnational American Fiction: Gender, Race and Genre (2026). 

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