Bill Clegg

Tuesday, September 22

7 pm at The Book Stall

 

 We're proud to host New York   literary agent Bill Clegg with his novel Did You Ever Have a Family, one of the season's most highly acclaimed new titles. Longlisted for the 2015 Man Booker Prize and an instant bestseller, it is the story of June Reid, a woman who loses her daughter, her daughter's fiance, her ex-husband, and her boyfriend in a catastrophic fire on the eve of her daughter's wedding. In the wake of her loss, June finds a beautiful and surprising web of connections through shared heartbreak. 

Did You Ever Have a Family is Mr. Clegg's first novel. He is also the author of two bestselling memoirs, Portrait of an Addict as a Young Man and Ninety Days.

Click here to read more about Mr. Clegg on his website and here for an insightful feature and interview published earlier this week in The Guardian. 

Richard Reeder

RICHARD REEDER

Thursday, September 10

6:30 pm at The Book Stall

 

Those who follow the Man Booker Prize, Britain's top literary award, won't want to miss Richard Reeder's presentation of the five American novels that are longlisted for the 2015 prize. Mr. Reeder, an author who teaches literature courses at Oakton Community College, is a local expert on those books that have achieved Booker fame, and he's been busy reading this year's American semifinalists. 

The titles include Did You Ever Have a Family by Bill Clegg (who will be at our store at 7 pm on Tuesday, September 22); The Moor's Account by Laila Lalami; Lila by Marilynne Robinson; A Spool of Blue Thread by Anne Tyler; and A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara. 

 

Those of you planning to attend can do a bit of homework by having a look at these brief author interviews posted on the Man Booker website during the past week: Bill Clegg, Marilynne Robinson, Anne Tyler, and Hanya Hanagihara.  Look for an interview with Laila Lalami soon.

Please join us for a stimulating evening. It will surely heighten the suspense leading up to the announcement of the six finalists on September 15. The prize will be awarded in London on October 13.

Man Booker Longlist Just Announced

The always highly-anticipated Longlist (see it here) for the 2014 Man Booker Prize was revealed today in London, and four American authors made the cut. They include:

* Joshua Ferris for To Rise Again at a Decent Hour

* Karen Joy Fowler for We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves

* Siri Hustvedt for The Blazing World
* Richard Powers for Orfeo.

The announcement was made even more suspenseful this year because this is the first time the prize is open to novels from across the globe ("whether from Chicago, Sheffield, or Shanghai," as the Man Booker announcement put it) as long as they are written in English and published in the UK. Previously it was restricted to authors from Great Britain, Ireland, and the Commonwealth.

 

Karen Joy Fowler won the prestigious PEN/Faulkner Award earlier this year for We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves, which was heartily endorsed by Book Stall staff and readers when it came out in 2013. She was also one of the featured authors at the 2013 Ragdale "Novel Affair" program in Lake Forest.

 

The Man Booker Shortlist will be announced September 9 and the winner on October 14.