We’re thrilled to welcome one of our favorite local authors, Elise Juska, to Open Book Bookstore to celebrate the publication of her new novel If We Had Known. We have long loved her previous novel, The Blessings, and we’re thrilled to have a new book!
DATE: Thursday, April 26
TIME: 7pm – 8:30pm
LOCATION: Open Book Bookstore
This powerful new book deals with what is tragically one of the most urgent and frightening crises of our times: school shootings.
One August afternoon, as single mother Maggie Daley prepares to send her only child off to college, their world is shattered by news of a mass shooting at the local mall in rural Maine. As reports and updates about the tragedy begin to roll in, Maggie, an English professor, is further stunned to learn that the gunman had been a student of hers. Nathan Dugan was an awkward, complicated young man whose quiet presence in her classroom had faded from her memory-but not, it seems, the memories of his classmates.
When a viral blog post hints at the existence of a dark, violence-tinged essay Nathan had written during Maggie’s freshman comp seminar, Maggie soon finds herself at the center of a heated national controversy. Could the overlooked essay have offered critical red flags that might have warned of, or even prevented, the murders to come? As the media storm grows around her, Maggie makes a series of desperate choices that threaten to destroy not just the personal and professional lives she’s worked so hard to build, but-more important-the happiness and safety of her sensitive daughter, Anna.
Join us for a reading, conversation, and signing with author Elise Juska.
Registration required. Sign up HERE.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Elise Juska
Elise Juska is the director of the BFA in Creative Writing program. Her novel, The Blessings, was selected for Barnes & Noble’s Discover Great New Writers series, Entertainment Weekly‘s “Must List,” and The Philadelphia Inquirer‘s Best Books of 2014, among other distinctions. Her new novel, If We Had Known, will be published in April 2018.
Elise’s short fiction and nonfiction have been widely published in journals and magazines. She is the recipient of the Alice Hoffman Prize for Fiction from Ploughshares and her work has been cited as distinguished by The Best American Short Stories.
Elise received the 2014 Lindback Award for Distinguished Teaching. She also serves as faculty advisor for the University’s student literary magazine, Underground Pool.
Note: all ticket sales are non-refundable.