Fiction

October 14, 2014 When Jesse’s father gets thrown out of the Methodist ministry in the early seventies, her family enters the vagabond spiritual path so prominent in that era, and Jesse negotiates her awkward ride into adolescence through encounters with her semi-transient neighbors. Darcey Steinke will discuss her new novel, Sister Golden Hair, at Burke’s Book Store in Memphis on October 16, 2014, at 5:30 p.m.

October 9, 2014 Redeployment—Phil Klay’s debut story collection, which has just been long-listed for the National Book Award—considers the complexity of modern warfare, where fighting units compete for glory; corpse-eating dogs have to be shot; and soldiers are counseled, patched up, or shipped home in a bag. Klay will appear at the Southern Festival of Books, held in Nashville October 10-12, 2014. All festival events are free and open to the public.

October 9, 2014 Rebecca Makkai’s new novel, The Hundred-Year House, reveals its secrets slowly, layer by layer, as the reader travels back in time from 1999 to 1900. At the center of the story is a house that becomes a character in its own right as Makkai combines straightforward narrative with snippets of poetry, telegrams, and letters to create a mood that is both modern and mysterious, historical and haunting. Makkai will appear at the Southern Festival of Books, held in Nashville October 10-12, 2014. All festival events are free and open to the public.

October 2, 2014 So much of what’s appealing about Lev Grossman is on display in the 400-plus fantastical pages of The Magician’s Land: his easy way with grandly deployed plotlines, his nuanced attention to the ways men and women communicate (or fail to), and his taut pacing. Lev Grossman will discuss the final volume in his fantasy trilogy at the Southern Festival of Books, held in Nashville October 10-12, 2014. All festival events are free and open to the public.

September 18, 2014 In 2007, Ishmael Beah received widespread praise for his memoir, A Long Way Gone, a troubling account of his life as a child soldier in Sierra Leone. In his first novel, Radiance of Tomorrow, Beah lyrically explores a village much like his own as it struggles toward normal life after a wartime massacre. Beah will appear at the Southern Festival of Books, held in Nashville October 10-12. All festival events are free and open to the public.