David Arnold’s latest YA novel follows a gang of oddballs on a mission of mercy
In Kids of Appetite, David Arnold creates a narrator whose capacity for dizzying wordplay brings to life a cast of characters so bizarre and yet so basically decent that readers can’t help but cheer them on in their crazy mission. Arnold will discuss Kids of Appetite at Parnassus Books on September 19 and at the Southern Festival of Books, held October 14-16.
Adam Haslett’s Imagine Me Gone depicts a family grappling with a legacy of suicide
In Imagine Me Gone, Adam Haslett uses multiple points of view to limn the collateral consequences of a father’s suicide and a tight-knit family’s history of depression. Haslett will appear at the Southern Festival of Books, held in Nashville October 14-16, 2016. Festival events are free and open to the public.
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Jason Ward investigates a series of lynchings in Clarke County, Mississippi
With deep research and vivid writing, Jason Ward tells the story of two lynchings in Clarke County, Mississippi, that explain both black progress and white resistance across the course of the twentieth century. Ward will discuss Hanging Bridge at the Southern Festival of Books, held in Nashville October 14-16, 2016.
A former slave struggles to know what justice might look like after the murder of her son
In The Orphan Mother, Robert Hicks revisits the setting and characters of his debut novel, The Widow of the South, at the dawn of Reconstruction. During the next month, Hicks will appear at Parnassus Books in Nashville, Books-a-Million in Mt. Juliet, The Franklin Theatre in Franklin, The Booksellers at Laurelwood in Memphis, and the Southern Festival of Books.
Ann Patchett’s new novel, Commonwealth, asks an age-old question
Ann Patchett’s new novel, Commonwealth, asks a question to keep you up at night, a question to trouble your soul under certain moons: What if? Patchett will read from Commonwealth at Montgomery Bell Academy in Nashville on September 12, 2016, at 6:15 p.m., and at the Southern Festival of Books, held in Nashville October 14-16. Both events are free and open to the public.
Sharon Cameron’s latest YA fantasy is a meditation on truth and memory
“I’ve been taught to write truth in my book since I was old enough to hold a pen. Our books are our sole identity after the Forgetting, the string that connects us to who we were before,” explains the teenage hero of Sharon Cameron’s newest YA fantasy, The Forgetting. Cameron will appear at Parnassus Books in Nashville on September 8, 2016, and at the Southern Festival of Books, held in Nashville October 14-16, 2016.
