Who Will Remain by Kasim Ali is a powerful new novel following a young man as he weighs up the life of safety that his parents want for him and another path on the streets outside his door, from the acclaimed author of Good Intentions.

Amir has grown up in Alum Rock, Birmingham, under the care of his sensible older brother, Bilal, and his cousin Saqib, born just a few days before Amir. Alum Rock can be a troubled place, but Amir has managed to keep his head down, worked hard and stayed out of trouble … until now.

When Saqib is killed in a gang fight and Bilal announces his engagement, Amir suddenly loses the two men who keep him grounded. Amir’s university grades are collapsing, he’s running out of money, and pressure mounts from every direction. As tensions flare, the friends left around him start to draw Amir into their more dangerous pursuits, and the family ties that have bound him so completely begin to unravel.

Amir decides he only has himself to rely on and must take his future into his own hands.

This is a blistering story of social expectations and social condemnation, of dead ends and divided loyalties, and of what’s left behind when you have nothing left to lose. (Harper Collins)

Kasim meets Jack at Salim’s in Turnpike Lane, North London.

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This episode is lifted from a live recording that took place at The Battle of Ideas Festival 2025 in Westminster on Saturday 18th October.

Jack draws together a panel of three speakers carefully selected to provide a modern perspective on the lasting significance of Franz Kafka’s The Trial, which turns 100 this year.

The panel featured Maxie Allen, radio producer for Times Radio, Nick Wallis, journalist and author of The Great Post Office Scandal, and John Yorke, narrative expert, author of Into the Woods: How Stories Work and Why We Tell Them, and presenter of BBC Radio 4’s Opening Lines.

From Nick’s relentless coverage of one of the biggest state-facilitated corporate assaults on working people ever recorded in British history, to Maxie’s own brush with the absurdity of modern British policing earlier this year, to John’s revivifying appraisal of the text, this discussion will make you wish you’d read the The Trial sooner.

A big thank to the Academy of Ideas, and to our excellent audience on the day.

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A riveting tale of risk and obsession set in the alluring world of Macau’s casinos, by the author of the critically acclaimed The Forgiven.

As night falls on Macau and the neon signs that line the rain-slick streets come alive, Doyle – “Lord Doyle” to his fellow players – descends into his casino of choice to try his luck at the baccarat tables that are the anchor of his current existence. A corrupt English lawyer who has escaped prosecution by fleeing to the East, Doyle spends his nights drinking and gambling and his days sleeping off his excesses, continually haunted by his past. Taking refuge in a series of louche and dimly lit hotels, he watches his fortune rise and fall as the cards decide his fate.

In a moment of crisis he meets Dao-Ming, an enigmatic Chinese woman who appears to be a denizen of the casinos just like himself, and seems to offer him salvation in the form of both money and love. But as Doyle attempts to make a rare and true connection, all that he accepts as reality seems to be slipping from his grasp.

Resonant of classics by Dostoevsky and Graham Greene, The Ballad of a Small Player is a timeless tale steeped in eerie suspense and rich atmosphere.

NOW ON NETFLIX: the adaptation of Ballad of a Small Player, starring Colin Farrell, Fala Chen, Deanie Ip, Alex Jennings, and Tilda Swinton.

Lawrence meets Jack at Defune in Marylebone, London.

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