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Hari Kunzru

September 3, 2020 @ 6:00 pm - 8:00 pm PDT

reading from his new book

Red Pill: a novel

published by Alfred Knopf

From the widely acclaimed author of White Tears, a bold new novel about searching for order in a world that frames madness as truth.

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This is a virtual event that will be hosted by City Lights on the Zoom platform. You will need access to a computer or other device that is capable of accessing the internet. If you have not used Zoom before, you may consider referencing Getting Started with Zoom.

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Event is free, but registration is required.

(Click Here) to register. Link to be posted soon. Check back with us.

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(Click Here) to purchase book (link to be posted soon!)

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After receiving a prestigious writing fellowship in Germany, the narrator of Red Pill arrives in the Berlin suburb of Wannsee and struggles to accomplish anything at all. Instead of working on the book he has proposed to write, he takes long walks and binge-watches Blue Lives–a violent cop show that becomes weirdly compelling in its bleak, Darwinian view of life–and soon begins to wonder if his writing has any value at all.

Wannsee is a place full of ghosts: Across the lake, the narrator can see the villa where the Nazis planned the Final Solution, and in his walks he passes the grave of the Romantic writer Heinrich von Kleist, who killed himself after deciding that “no happiness was possible here on earth.” When some friends drag him to a party where he meets Anton, the creator of Blue Lives, the narrator begins to believe that the two of them are involved in a cosmic battle, and that Anton is “red-pilling” his viewers–turning them toward an ugly, alt-rightish worldview–ultimately forcing the narrator to wonder if he is losing his mind.

“Razor-sharp . . . as an allegory about how well-meaning liberals have been blindsided by pseudo-intellectual bigots with substantial platforms, it’s bleak but compelling . . . ‘Kafkaesque’ is an overused term, but it’s an apt one for this dark tale of fear and injustice.”Kirkus (starred)

“Dazzling . . . Kunzru has created a complex, challenging, and bold story about a world gone amok. . .” —Booklist (starred)

Details

Date:
September 3, 2020
Time:
6:00 pm - 8:00 pm PDT
Event Categories:
,
Website:
http://www.citylights.com/info/?fa=event&event_id=3682

Organizer

City Lights Books
Phone
415-362-8193