A basket full of groceries tempts the book-loving Londoner this week, so let's cut to the chase:
Monday: Lots going on this evening. Tickets are still available for a heavyweight foreign affairs chinwag at the Southbank Centre. Longtime Middle East correspondent Robert Fisk, award-winning reporter Christina Lamb and novelist (and occasional Martin Amis basher) Ronan Bennett discuss contemporary reportage and non-fiction at the opening event of the Centre's Writing From The Frontline series. Tickets are £12. 7.30pm.Alternatively, dash over to Daunt Books in Marylebone for a talk by Misha Glennie, author of McMafia, a frank look at modern organized crime and "a fascinating and chilling portrait of globalisation’s dark side". He'll be in conversation with The Guardian's own Jonathan Freedland. Tickets are £5, and the event begins at 7pm.
Alternatively, a more literary take on one of the world's troublespots can be found at Blackwell's in Charing Cross, where Afghaninstan-born novelist Khaled Hosseini will be talking about his bestselling book, A Thousand Splendid Suns. Tickets are £8.
Friday: PEN International's globe-scouring Free The Word festival kicks off at the Southbank Centre with Kenyan author Ngugi wa Thiong'o and aboriginal Australian Alexis Wright discussing indigenous rights and the idea of a place called home. Tickets are £10.Sunday: Salman Rushdie's new novel The Enchantress of Florence has been getting mixed reviews, but he's likely to receive a warm welcome at the Southbank centre. Rushdie is in conversation with PEN International president Lisa Appignanesi, where the subject will be female protagonists and the role of the imagination in fiction. Tickets are £12.Know of an event that belongs in the Book Grocer listings? Please e-mail us at londonist-at-gmail-dot-com.
Image of the St. Basils on Red Square from Victor Nuno's Flickrstream