BOOKER long-listed author Nikita Lalwani will be at the Central Library tonight to give a talk and book signing.

Nikita was born in the Rajasthan region of India in 1973 and raised in Cardiff.

Her acclaimed first novel, Gifted, tells the story of a young maths genius whose early arrival at Oxford University shows her a different world from the one in which she was raised.

As well as reaching the shortlist of the Costa Book Award, Gifted was longlisted for the Man Booker Prize.

Her next novel, The Village, was published last year and is about the experiences of a British Asian woman who goes to an Indian village to make a documentary.

Like Gifted, The Village has won near-universal praise from the public and critics alike. One reviewer wrote: “Superb.. brilliantly realised. The searing narrative is unflinchingly and tenderly written, in every sense of the word tender.”

The author will be at the library’s second floor reading room at 7.15pm tomorrow, and tickets cost £1.50 for library members and £2.50 for non-members.

They are available from the Visitor Information Centre on the ground floor of the library and at any other Swindon library.

Further information is available at www.swindon.gov.uk/libraries