Disinterring his own and his country’s hard pasts, Darran Anderson discusses the objects that make up a life – and the violence that can undo it.

A smuggler and a deserter, Anderson’s grandfathers skirted the Second World War on the fringes of legality. His father survived the height of the political violence in Northern Ireland and he himself came of age during the final years of the Troubles. As a young man, he lost his way in the midst of hedonism, division and isolation.

To find a means of existing in the world, he felt compelled to leave his hometown of Derry. But the disappearance of a young man brought him back to the city, its history and the history of his own family.

Challenging generations of silence, he is in conversation with Max Porter.

Darran Anderson’s Inventory: A River, A City, A Family is published by Chatto & Windus. Buy a copy from Waterstones, our bookselling partners.

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Festival of Ideas: Darran Anderson, How Does Violence Undo a Life?