Boston Book Festival

How ought one to live?  How do the choices we make determine the arc of our lives?  How free are we really to make our own choices? These three novels tackle these philosophical questions with poignancy, heartache, and humor. Booker Prize nominated author Neel Mukherjee "one of the most original and talented authors working today" (NPR)  explores the theme of free will in his fourth novel Choice. Told in three parts, Choice reveals “how we graze one another’s lives with our decisions, some of which may be catastrophic for our conscience but beneficial for our art.” (NY Times). Adelle Waldman’s Help Wanted, one of the most anticipated novels of the year (and one of Barack Obama’s recommended books for 2024), draws attention to the toll capitalism exacts on low-wage workers and does so with wit, compassion, and a swift-moving plot. Help Wanted is “a rare entry to the workplace canon with this wise, funny story of an upstate New York big-box store and an opportunity that sends its employees scurrying for advancement” (LA Times).  In Samuel Kọ́láwọlé’s debut novel, The Road to Salt Sea, a young Nigerian man’s desperate attempt to leave his country after he is implicated in a violent crime leads to a series of moral compromises, and his story becomes a bracing tale of migrant desperation. “Out of this tableau of hope and disillusion, of buoyant dreams chastened by grim reality, Kọ́láwọlé has woven a trenchant, rich-veined, and gripping tale that strikes all the right keys while enthralling the reader” (The Hopkins Review). This session will be moderated by Alex George, founder of the Unbound Book Festival and author of the acclaimed national bestseller, The Paris Hours.