Attending the festival will be Ian Rankin and his popular fictional detective John Rebus, who, together, are responsible for 10 percent of all crime books ales in the United Kingdom, according to an official bio.
Other writers such as Gillian Slovo will talk of growing up in apartheid South Africa, Louise Doughty on Romany gypsies, while historian Anthony Beevor will talk on the rise of conspiracy theories in history.
Politics won't be far away, as Pakistani writer Mohamed Haniff reconstructs the plane crash that killed Pakistan's former president Zia ul Haq in his fictional 'A Case of Exploding Mangoes'.
Other South Asian writers include Rana Dasgupta (Tokyo Cancelled), Amit Varma (My Friend Sancho) and graphic novelist Sarnath Bannerjee.
Sri Lankan writers Ameena Hussain, Michelle de Kretser, Shyam Selvadurai, Ashok Ferrey , Ru Freeman and Shehan Karunatillake will also participate, as will well-known Sri Lankan architect, artist and art historian Ismeth Raheem.
The festival