Lauren Groff in Conversation With Lydia Kiesling

Brawler (Riverhead) is a stunning, fierce collection from three-time National Book Award finalist Lauren Groff, a master of the short story and one of the most important writers of our time. Read alone, each story in Groff’s electric new collection is an individual triumph, bold, agile, and packed with power. Read together, they hum in exhilarating resonance. Ranging from the 1950s to the present day and moving across age, class, and region — from New England to Florida to California — these nine stories reflect and expand upon a shared theme: the ceaseless battle between humans’ dark and light angels. “In every human there is both an animal and a god wrestling unto death,” one character tells us. Among those we see caught in this match are a young woman suddenly responsible for her disabled sibling, a hot-tempered high school swimmer in need of an adult, a mother blinded by the loss of her family, and a banking scion endowed with a different kind of inheritance. Motivated by love, impeded by the double edges of other people’s good intentions, they try to do the right thing for as long as they can. Precise, surprising, and provocative, anchored by profound insight into human nature, Brawler reveals the repeated, sometimes heartbreaking turning points between love and fear, compassion and violence, reason and instinct, altruism and what it takes to survive. Groff will be joined in conversation by Lydia Kiesling, author of Mobility.

Please note: This is a ticketed event. Tickets include admission, as well as one hardcover copy of Brawler. Books distributed at event.

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