In Emily St. John Mandel’s Station Eleven, a death onstage heralds the collapse of the modern era
September 8, 2014 A novel with enormous scope and an ambitious time-jumping structure, Emily St. John Mandel’s Station Eleven paints its post-apocalyptic world in both bold brushstrokes and tiny points of background detail. Mandel will discuss Station Eleven at the Southern Festival of Books in Nashville on Oct. 10-12.
Set against the backdrop of the Revolutionary War, Katy Simpson Smith’s assured debut considers the complexities of human relationships
September 5, 2014 The Story of Land and Sea, Katy Simpson Smith’s debut novel, considers parental love, faith, and friendship in coastal North Carolina at the end of the American Revolution. Smith will appear at Parnassus Books in Nashville on September 11, 2014, at 6:30 p.m.
Antonya Nelson’s characters see cause and effect in their own lives—too late to change the outcome
September 3, 2014 Antonya Nelson has often been praised as one of the great contemporary writers of the short story. With Funny Once, her newest collection, she more than delivers on that reputation with nine stories and a novella that are object lessons in exquisitely crafted literary fiction. Antonya Nelson 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.
In Rooms, Lauren Oliver explores the secrets that haunt both the living and the dead
August 28, 2014 Lauren Oliver, internationally bestselling author of young-adult novels, makes her debut for adults with Rooms, a ghost story. In the novel, Richard Walker’s death brings home his bitter ex-wife and estranged children, and memories associated with the house add to tensions between them. But they are not the only ones trapped by memories of this house: Alice and Sandra, now ghosts who once lived and died there, have their secrets, too. Lauren Oliver will appear at the Southern Festival of Books in Nashville on October 10-12. All festival events are free and open to the public.
Nickolas Butler’s Shotgun Lovesongs sends four small-town friends into a tangle of heartbreak
August 26, 2014 The four friends at the center of Nickolas Butler’s debut novel, Shotgun Lovesongs, teeter between nostalgia for the young guys they once were and hopes for the men they will become. Now in their mid-thirties, they have begun to feel the weight of the choices they’ve already made. Nickolas Butler will discuss Shotgun Lovesongs at the Southern Festival of Books, held in Nashville October 10-12, 2014. All festival events are free and open to the public.
James Ellroy talks with Chapter 16 about cops, history, and “literary megalomania”
August 25, 2014 In Perfidia, a wartime tour de force, James Ellroy returns to familiar characters and historical figures in the first book of what he calls his Second L.A. Quartet. The novel focuses on betrayals large and small among the Los Angeles police in the days following the attack on Pearl Harbor. Ellroy 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.
