Kae Tempest On His Latest Novel, ‘Having Spent Life Seeking’
6/9/20261 hr 7 min
For the Service95 Book Club this month, Dua is joined by writer, poet, playwright and musician Kae Tempest to discuss his latest novel, Having Spent Life Seeking, which is Dua’s Monthly Read for June. Together, Dua and Kae explore the novel’s core themes: forgiveness and atonement, the instability of home when both the person and the place have changed, and the difficult process of becoming fully ‘alive’ again after years spent disconnected from the world. At the centre of their discussion is Rothko, a character Kae describes as “dislocated from life”, alongside the novel’s wider cast, each carrying their own desires, wounds and ways of surviving. Kae also reflects on his immersive writing process, describing characters less as inventions than people he has spent years getting to know. The conversation moves through addiction, shame, creativity, identity and the role of art as a means of processing experience and remaining open to the world. Watch (or listen to) the full conversation here to dive deeper into Having Spent Life Seeking, Dua Lipa’s Monthly Read for the Service95 Book Club. Join the club: 📩 Email us your thoughts – books@service95.com 📲 Follow @service95bookclub on Instagram for more author interviews 📚 Subscribe to the Service95 Book Club newsletter – and be the first to discover Dua’s next pick – at service95.com And don’t forget to hit ‘subscribe’ wherever you get your podcasts Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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First 90 secondsSpeaker 10:00
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Speaker 20:29
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Dua Lipa· Host0:59
[gentle music] Hi, everyone, and welcome back to the Service95 Book Club. Today I'm talking to the ridiculously talented Kai Tempest, poet, spoken word artist, playwright, musician, and novelist. We'll be talking about his new novel, Having Spent Life Seeking. It's a powerful and raw story of falling and forgiveness, of leaving and return, and of desire and redemption. It's also a love letter to the trans community, a hymn to fractured families, and a call for empathy to those living on the margins. Kai says about writing the book, "I put everything