Fiction

September 8, 2015 At any given moment, the fate of the feisty young heroine of Lorraine Lopez’s new novel would seem to rise and fall at the mercy of whatever book she’s reading. Written with humor, The Darling provides a delightful glimpse into the ways a woman’s reading life can become inextricable from her desires and her choices. Lopez will discuss The Darling in Vanderbilt University’s Furman Hall Room 114 on September 10, 2015, at 7 p.m. and at the Southern Festival of Books, held in Nashville October 9-11, 2015. Both events are free and open to the public.

September 4, 2015 Celebrated Southern poet and novelist Ron Rash returns with Above the Waterfall, a taut tale of mountain intrigue that combines Rash’s elegiac lyricism with his gift for fast-paced, suspenseful plotting and his rage at the continuing exploitation of Appalachia. Rash will discuss Above the Waterfall at the Southern Festival of Books, held in Nashville October 9-11, 2015.

September 1, 2015 With his new collection of short fiction, Cries for Help, Various, Padgett Powell provides a lively medley of voices that live up to the author’s dicta that fiction should “be alive” and “be surprising.” Powell will read from and discuss his new book at the Southern Festival of Books, held in Nashville October 9-11, 2015.

August 28, 2015 First-time novelist Tom Cooper delivers a profane and rollicking tale of obsession and absurdity in The Marauders. Cooper will appear at the Southern Festival of Books, held in Nashville October 9-11, 2015.

August 21, 2015 Jenny Milchman’s latest psychological thriller, As Night Falls, explores the boundaries of culpability as the victim of childhood trauma tries to save her family from a sadistic figure from her past. Milchman will discuss her novel at The Booksellers at Laurelwood in Memphis on August 29, 2015, at 2 p.m.

August 17, 2015 In Nancy Reisman’s novel Trompe L’Oeil, the horror that befalls an unexceptional, upper-middle-class clan pervades every family member’s consciousness and ripples down the years, creating pain and existential uncertainty even in those not yet born when it happened. Reisman will give three public readings in Nashville: at Parnassus Books on August 20, at Vanderbilt University on September 10, and at the Southern Festival of Books, held October 9-11, 2015.