In Robert Olen Butler’s Perfume River, Vietnam haunts soldiers and their families decades after the war
In Robert Olen Butler’s new novel, Perfume River, the past is very much present as an aging history professor struggles to shake traumatic memories of the Vietnam War and the way it tore his family apart. Butler will discuss Perfume River at Crosstown Arts in Memphis on October 13 at 6 p.m., and also at the Southern Festival of Books, held in Nashville October 14-16.
An overscheduled woman walks out on her life in Gayle Forman’s Leave Me
Gayle Forman’s first novel for adults, Leave Me, takes a hard look at love, life choices, and the reasons women stay in difficult relationships. Forman will appear at the Southern Festival of Books, held in Nashville October 14-16. Festival events are free and open to the public.
Megan Abbott’s latest novel mines gymnastics to menacing effect
You Will Know Me, the latest novel from suspense master Megan Abbott, focuses on a gymnastics prodigy and her family as they grapple with an unexpected and tragic accident. Abbott will appear at the Southern Festival of Books, held in Nashville October 14-16.
In Ron Rash’s The Risen, two brothers learn that the past is not as distant as they believed
Ron Rash’s latest novel, The Risen, brings two brothers into an unexpected confrontation with a romantic interlude they both assumed would remain hidden in the past.
Thomas Mullen delivers a hardboiled historical gem
Thomas Mullen’s new crime novel Darktown is a twisted and tangled ride through big-city corruption and the dark and bloody ground of the Jim Crow South. Mullen will appear at the Southern Festival of Books, held in Nashville October 14-16.
A baby girl born with an abnormality faces an uncertain future in Brad Watson’s Miss Jane
Brad Watson’s Miss Jane follows the life of Jane Chisolm—a woman born in 1915 Mississippi with a genital abnormality—in a character study which also illuminates the rich internal terrain of those who know her best. Brad Watson will discuss Miss Jane at the Southern Festival of Books, held in Nashville October 14-16. Festival events are free and open to the public.
