Racism and hatred, grief and loss, form actual monsters that only the Sangerye family can fight in David Walker’s Bitter Roots series. Kwanza Osajeyfo’s Black AF universe takes a macabre turn in Widows and Orphans, as Black babies with superpowers are bartered and sold. And Brandon Thomas’ Excellence imagines a world in which magic is […]
LIVE! Event starts Friday, November 20 @ 8 p.m. Part family drama, part social essay, part picaresque novel, Pulitzer Prize winner Ayad Akhtar's Homeland Elegies attempts to make sense of a post-9/11 country in which the gods of finance rule, debt has ruined countless lives, and immigrants live in fear. He’s speaking with Iraq war […]
LIVE! Event starts Friday, November 20 @ 6 p.m. Two sisters present their latest works in a conversation informed by the dynamic of the familiar. Louise Erdrich’s novel The Night Watchman explores themes of love and death with lightness and gravity. It's a fictional world populated by memorable characters forced to grapple with the […]
Moderated by Conor McCreery, author of the Kill Shakespeare series In worlds across the galaxy, in faraway futures, in alternate timelines – these stories share a call to action, and a noble quest for truth. The chronicles inTartarus Vol 1. by Johnnie Christmas, The Seeds by Ann Nocenti, and Hardcore Reloaded: Vol 2. by Brandon Thomas share characters who embrace this quest head-on. They rise […]
Honoree, 2020 National Book Foundation 5 Under 35 In Luster, we meet Edie, a 23-year-old Black woman working in New York publishing who’s barely making rent each month, trying to make sense of her life, and finding herself tangled in a suburban white couple’s open marriage. As if navigating the constantly shifting landscapes of contemporary sexual mores […]
2020 National Book Award Finalist Keenly attuned to the complexities of parenthood, race, and class, the critically acclaimed Leave the World Behind tells the story of two families, strangers forced together over a long weekend gone terribly wrong. Shielding themselves in a charmingly secluded house that’s suddenly become a dubious refuge from whatever monstrous thing may […]
Set on the Korean island of Jeju and crossing many decades, The Island of Sea Women, by New York Times bestselling author, Lisa See, relays the story of two best friends from very different backgrounds. But when warring forces underscore those differences, the confrontation that follows has the power to irrevocably alter their friendship – and the […]
This dystopian noir thriller – the latest novel from New York Times bestselling author Ben H. Winters – is set in the Golden State, a sovereign nation established where California once stood, and a place where like-minded Americans retreated after the erosion of truth and the spread of lies made public life and governance impossible […]
In Sorry for Your Trouble, a collection of short stories, Pulitzer Prize winner Richard Ford offers a moving meditation on memory, love, and loss. From a 16-year-old fatherless boy in “Displaced” to the fiftysomething widower suddenly navigating life alone and untethered in “The Run of Yourself,” Ford’s protagonists are all mourning, both the people who […]
Christopher Beha's The Index of Self-Destructive Acts is a sharp family portrait, a masterful evocation of New York City and its institutions, and an exploration of how each generation’s failure helped land us where we are today. He’s speaking with Greg Jackson, whose debut fiction work Prodigals is populated by strivers, misfits, and children of […]
Live program + Q&A! Starts @ 8:30 p.m. EST. In It's Not All Downhill From Here, Terry McMillan’s 10th consecutive New York Times bestselling work of fiction, Loretha Curry is on the eve of her 68th birthday and has much to be happy about: a booming beauty-supply empire, lifelong friends, and a husband who still […]
The characters in Kevin Kwan’s internationally bestselling Crazy Rich Asians trilogy captivated readers and moviegoers alike, and his latest, Sex and Vanity – a modern-day take on E.M. Forster’s classic A Room With a View – does not disappoint. He’s joined by NPR Books editor Petra Mayer, a contributor to “Pop Culture Happy Hour” and a former producer and director for […]