Pursuing Ghosts
September 26, 2013 Sylvie, the teenaged narrator of John Searles’s searing third novel, Help for the Haunted, awakes to the sound of the gunshots that killed her parents. Left in the care of her older sister, she works to piece together what happened that night—endangering her own life along the way. Searles, author of the bestselling mysteries Boy Still Missing and Strange but True, will appear at the twenty-fifth annual Southern Festival of Books, held in Nashville October 11-13, 2013. All festival events are free and open to the public.
September 25, 2013 In his debut memoir, A Long Day at the End of the World: A Story of Desecration and Revelation in the Deep South, Brent Hendricks writes about the “largest mass desecration in modern American history” and of learning that his own father’s corpse lay among hundreds of bodies discarded outside at Georgia’s Tri-State Crematory. Hendricks will appear at the twenty-fifth annual Southern Festival of Books, held in Nashville October 11-13, 2013. All festival events are free and open to the public.
September 24, 2013 Crapalachia: A Biography of a Place by Scott McClanahan is a surprisingly poignant work that manages to borrow from the Appalachian storytelling tradition as it confronts, even dismisses, its tropes and trappings. On the one hand, it’s an homage to the people McClanahan has known and loved; on the other, it’s a commentary on the fictive quality of all such biographical projects. McClanahan will discuss Crapalachia at the twenty-fifth annual 
September 18, 2013 In Vicious, V.E. Schwab—the Nashville YA author Victoria Schwab—has conjured a vivid fantasy world for adults, one that is replete with black magic and strong characters of both sexes. Schwab will discuss Vicious at Parnassus Books in Nashville on September 25, 2013, at 6:30 p.m.
September 17, 2013 In her third novel, The Funeral Dress, Susan Gregg Gilmore does her finest work to date, perfectly capturing the rhythm and music of small-town Southern life in a quiet story about the ways women support one another when times are tough. Gilmore will discuss The Funeral Dress at Parnassus Books in Nashville on September 24, 2013, at 6:30 p.m., and again at Union Ave. Books in Knoxville on October 6 at 2 p.m.
September 13, 2013 In Michael Farris Smith’s debut novel, Rivers, the world seems to be getting “badder all the time,” and the Gulf Coast is declared uninhabitable. Two years after the final evacuation, Smith sets a small band of characters on the dangerous road North, toward the hope of a new life free from storms. Michael Farris Smith will discuss Rivers at the Southern Festival of Books, held in Nashville October 11-13, 2013. All festival events are free and open to the public.