Chapter 16
A Community of Tennessee Writers, Readers & Passersby

A Mystical Blend of Humor and Heartbreak

Realism and fantasy mix in Etgar Keret’s Fly Already

Etgar Keret’s story collection Fly Already takes readers into a quirky yet penetrating world. Keret will appear at the John C. Hodges Library at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville on September 16.

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At Childhood’s End

Four young friends discover more about the world — and themselves — than they bargained for

Shannon Greenland’s Scouts is an old-fashioned summer adventure story, complete with wild animals, a menacing mountain clan, spooky caves, and dangerous strangers. Greenland will appear at the 2019 Southern Festival of Books, held in Nashville on October 11-13.

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Deflection and Redemption

Susan Neiman considers America’s moral possibilities in Learning from the Germans

Through anecdote, testimony, and thorough research, Susan Neiman explores moral responses in postwar Germany and throughout the American South in Learning from the Germans: Race and the Memory of Evil. Neiman will appear at the 2019 Southern Festival of Books, held in Nashville on October 11-13.

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Fields of Dreams

Patriarchal mores and the ghosts of genocide haunt a Cambodian farming family

In Three Flames, novelist Alan Lightman weaves together a rural Cambodian family’s stories, as each struggles against poverty, the wounds of war, and rigid societal expectations. Lightman will discuss the book at Burke’s Book Store in Memphis on September 19.

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Miami Meets Middle America

A Cuban American writer recounts the revelations of her own otherness in white America

In My Time Among the Whites, Jennine Capó Crucet, the American-born daughter of Cuban refugees, describes a childhood spent in the relative cultural comfort of Miami and then, as an adult, her disparate life experiences against the wider American landscape. Crucet will appear at the 2019 Southern Festival of Books, held in Nashville on October 11-13.

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A Hero’s Journey

Four orphans search for answers in William Kent Krueger’s This Tender Land

William Kent Krueger’s This Tender Land follows four orphans as they venture beyond all they’ve known to find answers about their families. Krueger will discuss the novel at Parnassus Books in Nashville on September 10 and at Novel in Memphis on September 11.

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