In Yiyun Li’s Music Against the Night, two young musical prodigies endure heartbreak and loss before finding love and fame in an era of upheaval in Europe. Yiyun Li will discuss Music Against the Night at Parnassus Books on October 15 as part of the 2026 Southern Festival of Books.
In Barbara Kingsolver’s Partita, a middle-aged woman, once a promising concert pianist, remembers the summer when a passionate love affair destroyed her dreams of a musical career. Kingsolver will discuss Partita at Vanderbilt’s Langford Auditorium in Nashville on October 11 as part of the 2026 Southern Festival of Books.
In See You on the Other Side, the concluding novel in a tetralogy depicting a glamorous Manhattan couple, Jay McInerney balances nostalgia for the riotous past with concerns for a doubtful future. McInerney will discuss See You on the Other Side at the Southern Festival of Books in Nashville on October 17-18.
In American Men, Jordan Ritter Conn tracks the lives of four representative souls whose torturous journeys reveal the gap between what men are supposed to be and who they really are.
In Delivery, the new novel by Christopher Hebert, a star baseball player hides from the expectations of friends by delivering pizzas, but he knows that a reckoning of his future is coming soon. Hebert will discuss Delivery at Union Ave. Books in Knoxville on May 14.
In The News from Dublin, Colm Tóibín depicts characters who employ grit and guile to create new homes and fresh identities. Tóibín will discuss The News from Dublin at Parnassus Books in Nashville on April 30.
