« All Events

  • This event has passed.

Jesse Ball: How to Set a Fire and Why

July 12, 2016 @ 7:30 pm - 9:30 pm UTC+0

Long-time Green Apple favorite Jesse Ball joins us for a special celebration of his latest novel, How to Set a Fire and Why.

Praise for Jesse Ball:

“How to Set a Fire and Why is a rare and startling work. Days after I read it, I find that I can’t stop thinking about it, and what I’ve realized is that this is a book I will not forget. This is a harrowing, subtle, and absolutely electrifying novel.” —Emily St. John Mandel, bestselling author of Station Eleven
“The beautifully blunt narration of a gifted delinquent propels this excellent sixth novel…. Lucia details a philosophy that smartly parallels the novel’s own–namely, that writing literature is, like arson, an act of creation and destruction…. Thrilling…. A song of teenage heartbreak sung with a movingly particular sadness, a mature meditation on how actually saying something, not just speaking, is what most makes a voice human.”  —Publishers Weekly (starred, boxed review)
“Profound… Ball performs the remarkable task of pruning away layers of readerly skepticism in order to find the inherent beauty of small moments.” —Jonathon Sturgeon, Flavorwire, on A Cure for Suicide

About How to Set Fires and Why:

The highly acclaimed author of A Cure for Suicide now gives us a singular, blistering novel about a teenage girl who has lost everything and will burn anything.

 

Lucia’s father is dead; her mother is in a mental institute; she’s living in a garage-turned-bedroom with her aunt. And now she’s been kicked out of school again. Making her way through the world with only a book, a zippo lighter, a pocket full of stolen licorice, a biting wit, and striking intelligence she tries to hide, she spends her days riding the bus to visit her mother and following the only rule that makes any sense to her: “Don’t do things you aren’t proud of.” But when she discovers that her new school has a secret Arson Club, she’s willing to do anything to be a part of it, and her life is suddenly lit up. And as her fascination with the Arson Club grows, her story becomes one of misguided friendship and, ultimately, destruction.

Details

Organizer

Venue