Boston Book Festival

Three profoundly moving novels map the complex and intimate bonds between parents and children along with the redemptive power of stories that transcend time. Praised by the New York Journal of Books as “fresh and provocative and deep,” Days of Wonder, the latest novel of NY Times bestselling author Caroline Leavitt is a bold, intricately woven story about a young mother who must reinvent her identity to clear her name and search for her lost daughter. Jeanne Blasberg’s Daughter of a Promise is a “sagacious and graceful-modern day retelling of a biblical love story” (Kirkus Reviews) that explores the tensile forces between ambition and desire. Praised  by Booklist as “a deceiving and entrancing tale”, Henriette Lazaridis’ Last Days in Plaka is a deft and layered coming-of-age novel, set in Athens, where a young Greek-American woman’s hunger to belong draws her into a fateful encounter with an aging widow. This session will be moderated by Jessica Keener whose most recent novel, Strangers in Budapest, was praised as a “tense and atmospheric thriller” by the Boston Globe.

Three memoirists offer an intimate look at their literary and life paths as they contemplate how identity is created. Anne Anlin Cheng, a noted scholar of race and identity, gives us a fresh look at being an Asian American woman in her recent book, Ordinary Disasters. Jerald Walker, recipient of the PEN New England Award for nonfiction and finalist for the National Book Award, presents his new book, Magically Black, where he shares Black life and culture with equal parts humor and empathy. Frighten the Horses takes us inside Oliver Radclyffe’s journey from what appears to be a perfect life, into the world of queerness as he comes out and then transitions. Join us for a candid and revealing discussion about the memories and desires that influence our lives and ultimately help us define our futures. James Bennett II, arts and culture reporter for GBH News, will lead the conversation.

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.

Multi-generational family stories set against the backdrop of pivotal moments in history are told in these three narratives, exploring themes of memory, reconciling the present and past, and the far reaching after-effects of our ancestors’ choices. In Wendy Chen’s debut, Their Divine Fires, the consequences from an act of violence on a bride’s wedding night reverberates for generations amidst China’s revolution through present day. Haunting and intimate, Their Divine Fires has been praised as “deeply moving…poignant” by the Toronto Star. Ben Shattuck’s The History of Sound spans three centuries, examining how love and loss are entwined and transformed over generations. Described as “masterful” (Chicago Tribune) and “deeply resonant” (Boston Globe), Shattuck’s linked story collection is set in New England, from the woods of New Hampshire to 1700 Nantucket; each story with a companion story, resurfacing truth, artifact, and feelings that linger. In Jessica Shattuck’s Last House, an idealistic family man of the Greatest Generation rises from humble means to providing every comfort for his family, though history has other plans, sweeping them up in the counterculture and civil rights movement where new ideals will be formed. Spanning 80 years, the novel is “a richly detailed, slow-burning family saga distinguished by incisive psychological insight and masterful research” (NY Times). This session will be moderated by Stephen Kiernan, acclaimed author of seven books, most recently The Glass Chateau. Sponsored by Emerson College Graduate Programs.