Q & A

October 27, 2011 In Sarah Shun-lien Bynum’s charming collection of linked stories, Ms. Hempel Chronicles, a young seventh-grade English teacher, Beatrice Hempel, offers lovingly detailed observations of a middle-school ecosystem—observations that are immediately resonant and often suffused with wry humor, both for readers who have taught and those who have done time in those locker-lined halls only as students. Bynum answered questions from Chapter 16 prior to her reading at Vanderbilt University in Nashville on November 3 at 7 p.m.

October 19, 2011 Set in modern Thailand, the seven stories in Rattawut Lapcharoensap’s debut collection, Sightseeing, offer glimpses of the country’s pressure points: the tension between tourists and natives, between citizens and government, and within families. While Lapcharoensap turns an eye to the seamier side of Bangkok and Thai outposts, his characters are often innocents, gentle spirits who are keenly aware of the pain of the world that surrounds them. Lapcharoensap will give a reading at Vanderbilt University in Nashville on October 20.

October 13, 2011 Chris Bohjalian, bestselling author of Secrets of Eden and Midwives, discusses the genesis of his latest novel, The Night Strangers, a delightfully creepy New England ghost story. Bohjalian will appear at the 2011 Southern Festival of Books, held October 14-16 in Nashville. All events are free and open to the public.

October 10, 2011 As she did in her first two novels (Love Walked In and Belong To Me), Marisa de los Santos carefully explores the nuances of every type of love—filial, familial, and romantic—in her new novel, Falling Together. For de los Santos, romantic love may get all the sonnets, but true friendship can be more passionate, more enduring, and more excruciating to lose. She will appear at the 2011 Southern Festival of Books, held October 14-16 in Nashville. All events are free and open to the public.

October 5, 2011 Other writers can’t quit praising the debut novel by Justin Torres. “We should all be grateful for Justin Torres, a brilliant, ferocious new voice,” Michael Cunningham wrote for the book’s back cover, where he joined Dorothy Allison, Marilynne Robinson, Paul Harding, and Tayari Jones in a veritable orgy of blurbing for We the Animals. Torres will appear at the 2011 Southern Festival of Books, held October 14-16 in Nashville. All events are free and open to the public.