George RR Martin will be discussing the latest Game of Thrones developments, Martin Amis will be launching his new novel set in a concentration camp, and Haruki Murakami will be unveiling the English translation of his latest bestseller at the Edinburgh International Book Festival this summer.

The Guardian-sponsored festival, which will run from 9-25 August in Edinburgh's Charlotte Square Gardens, has announced a stellar line-up of authors for this year's programme. As well as the translation of Murakami's Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage, which sold a million copies in Japan in its first week of publication, and Amis introducing The Zone of Interest, there will be book launches from Sarah Waters and Will Self, while short-story writer Lydia Davis will be making her first visit to the UK since winning the £60,000 Man Booker International prize. There will also be a rare public appearance from Pakistani activist Malala Yousafzai as part of the festival's schools programme.

With more than 900 participants from 47 different countries, the festival will showcase new poetry from Simon Armitage and former archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, talks from the UK's poet laureate Carol Ann Duffy and the former US poet laureate Billy Collins, and events from a wide-ranging list of major names including Jung Chang, Margaret Drabble and Richard Dawkins – fresh from inciting controversy for apparently questioning the merits of fairy tales.

"I think the queues for Martin's book signing will be stretching halfway across Edinburgh," said festival director Nick Barley of the bestselling American fantasy writer. "The stars have come into alignment for this year's event – we've got the big names, and the emerging writers who will be the stars of the future. Helen Macdonald's memoir H is for Hawk, for example – I'm convinced it's going to be an absolute classic of nature writing."

The festival takes place just weeks before Scotland's independence referendum on 18 September, and Barley said that speakers from "all points of view" would be tackling the topic. "The political discourse has been a bit one-dimensional on the subject so we have historians, academics and novelists all addressing it," he said. "What's at stake here is the future of these islands – we're about to make a decision which affects them. And the book festival has become a really important forum for public debate."

Barley said the festival was taking place in the context of the Scottish referendum, the Commonwealth Games in Scotland, and the first world war centenary, as well as the rise of the extreme right in Europe. "Really important writing takes place against a backdrop of what's happening in the world, so all the authors will be talking with that in the background. For me, writing makes sense of what is going on," he said. "And book festivals are a place of thoughtfulness – a place to reflect on where we are in the world."

The eclectic line-up will also see the award-winning writer Raja Shehadeh chairing a series of events on the Middle East, Michael Rosen arguing that books are intrinsic to our survival as human beings, Viv Albertine reminiscing about her punk career and children's author Debi Gliori celebrating the work of Moomins creator Tove Jansson on the 100th anniversary of her birth. Ali Smith will be addressing the power of words, while both Kate Adie and Jeremy Paxman will be looking at the first world war, and Guardian journalist Luke Harding, author of The Snowden Files, will be considering "surveillance and the self" in an event with Josh Cohen, author of The Private Life: Why We Remain in the Dark.

As well as launching IDP: 2043, a graphic novel about a dystopian future Scotland featuring contributions from Irvine Welsh and Denise Mina, the festival has commissioned writers including Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie and Christos Tsiolkas to produce short stories on the themes of identity and home, with the pieces adapted into a promenade theatre production, Letters Home, by the Scottish company Grid Iron.

Julia Donaldson will be showcasing her latest book The Flying Bath as part of the children's programme, as the actor Mackenzie Crook launches his new title The Lost Journals of Benjamin Tooth, Frank Cottrell Boyce returns to Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, and Rosen celebrates 25 years of We're Going on a Bear Hunt. Children's laureate Malorie Blackman, and the bestselling authors Patrick Ness and John Boyne, will also be appearing.

"The book festival provides a crucial forum for dialogue, where we can listen to and learn from one another, particularly in this year of momentous events in Scotland," said Barley. "Our thought-provoking conversations with both authors and audiences will permeate through Charlotte Square Gardens as we welcome world-renowned writers and thinkers from many countries and cultures to Edinburgh, some for the first time in their careers."

• Tickets go on sale on 24 June 2014