TIFA Presents – Between Good & Evil: Mellissa Fung in Conversation with Louise Penny
Witness true, raw and honest storytelling at its best, live at the historic Winter Garden Theatre. Prolific, bestselling author Louise Penny sits down with award-winning journalist, author and filmmaker Mellissa Fung for a powerful conversation about Fung’s latest book, Between Good and Evil: The Stolen Girls of Boko Haram (HarperCollins, April 18, 2023). In April 2014, nearly 300 Nigerian schoolgirls were kidnapped by the terrorist group Boko Haram, and to this day many are still missing or presumed dead. In her book, Fung documents the shocking true stories of several survivors, as collected over four years of travel and from 100+ hours of interviews with the girls and their families. As a former captive herself – which Fung wrote about in her number-one-bestselling memoir Under an Afghan Sky – Fung shares the girls’ horrific stories with great empathy. From their kidnappings, assaults and tortures, to pivotal moments of bravery and resistance, Fung portrays heartbreaking feats of strength and faith, and renews a global call for urgent action.
This 50-minute interview will be followed by an audience Q&A. Mellissa Fung will sign books following the presentation. Book sales courtesy of Ben McNally Books.
Interviewer: Louise Penny
Ticket Info:
Date & Time: Monday, April 17 at 7pm ET
Where: Winter Garden Theatre (189 Yonge Street, Toronto)
Ticket price: Regular starts at $25.99; Students & Youth – $19.99
The TIFA Friends presale is over. Public tickets are now on sale!
In April 2014, the world awoke to the shocking news that the terrorist group Boko Haram had kidnapped nearly 300 school-aged girls and taken them deep into the forests of Nigeria. When veteran journalist Mellissa Fung discovered that the scope of the kidnappings had been vastly under-reported. Hundreds—possibly thousands—more girls had been taken against their will and forced to become child brides to soldiers and leaders of Boko Haram. Some of the captives escaped and returned to their villages, many with children in tow. Other girls have never been seen again.
Over four years, Fung sat down with the girls and their families and conducted hundreds of hours of interviews, listening to horrific stories of capture, rape and torture, as well as escapes and excommunications. This is raw, honest and heartbreaking storytelling at its best.
Mellissa Fung is a veteran journalist, bestselling author and filmmaker. In 2008, as a field correspondent covering Afghanistan for the CBC, she was taken hostage, an experience that led to her number-one-bestselling book Under an Afghan Sky. Her story, and those of three Nigerian girls, were the subject of her first feature documentary, Captive, which premiered in 2021 and has been nominated for several major awards. Since leaving the network, Fung has focused on human rights reporting. Her work has been featured in the Globe and Mail, the Huffington Post, the Walrus and the Toronto Star, and on Al Jazeera, CNN, PBS and other media. She has received numerous awards, including the Gracie Award, a Commonwealth Broadcasting Association award and the New York Festivals Gold and Silver Awards. Mellissa Fung holds a master’s degree in journalism from Columbia University. Photo credit: Jane McLeish-Kelsey.
Louise Penny is the author of the #1 New York Times, USA Today and Globe and Mail bestselling series of Chief Inspector Armand Gamache novels, and co-author with Hillary Rodham Clinton of the #1 New York Times bestselling thriller State of Terror. She has won numerous awards, including a CWA Dagger and the Agatha Award (eight times), and was a finalist for the Edgar Award for Best Novel. In 2017, she received the Order of Canada for her contributions to Canadian culture. Louise lives in a small village south of Montréal. Photo credit: Mikael Theimer.
This event is presented by the Toronto International Festival of Authors in partnership with Raincoast Books and HarperCollins Canada.
