Join us for a magical evening of words, painting and music with Karthika Naïr, Joelle Joliet and Alex Freiman, to celebrate the beautiful English edition of Electric Birds of Pothakudi. Suitable for both the young (6 years and up) and the young-at-heart.

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Karuppu Raja dearly loves his village of Pothakudi. He takes great pride in being responsible for switching on the circuit breaker every night to power the streetlamps, only source of light for most of the villagers. But one evening, he discovers a bird’s nest buried deep inside the box. He’s faced with a terrible dilemma: should he turn the switch on, destroying the nest, or leave the village in darkness…?

In the summer of 2020, even as the pandemic raged over the world, a small report circulated across Indian newspapers: Pothakudi, a village in Tamil Nadu, went without street lighting for 35 nights, because a pair of vannathikuruvi, Oriental Magpie Robins, had built a nest, and laid eggs, inside the sole circuit breaker that powered all its street lamps. Electric Birds of Pothakudi springboards from this very real event to create a magical tale of interspecies solidarity and community.

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Karthika Naïr is a poet, playwright, fabulist and dance scenarist. Les Oiseaux électriques de Pothakudi (Éditions Hélium/Actes-Sud, 2022) – her latest children’s book illustrated by Joëlle Jolivet – won the 2023 Prix Felipé for “ecological children’s literature”, and is shortlisted for the 2023 Prix Franco-Allemand de la littérature de jeunesse.

Joëlle Jolivet is an outstanding Illustrator who works mostly in linocut. She knows how to style without losing sight of the original object, and is passionate about detail. Her books have been published internationally. She lives and works in Ivry-sur-Seine, France.