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June 10th: Howard Norman / Next Life Might Be Kinder

In his gorgeous, uncanny NEXT LIFE MIGHT BE KINDER (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, May 13, 2014), acclaimed American novelist Howard Norman makes a brilliant return to fiction, delivering a tale of murder, loss, desperation, faith, and above all else the redemptive powers of love.

The narrator, Sam Lattimore, is a struggling writer in 1970s Halifax, still reeling from the murder of his young wife Elizabeth at the hands of hotel bellman Alfonse Padgett. He has no interest in finding closure - in fact, he sees Elizabeth almost every night on a nearby beach, where she methodically lines up the books she most loved in life. Yet while Sam treasures his nightly conversations with Elizabeth, he fears asking the one question he knows she’s waiting to answer.

During the day, Sam’s life is no less complicated. In the aftermath of Elizabeth’s death, dazed and strapped for cash, Sam sold the whole tragic tale to Peter Istvakson, a Norwegian filmmaker known for his slick, violent films. By the time the book opens, Sam and Istvakson are at odds as Istvakson paws through every intimate detail of Sam and Elizabeth’s short life together and Sam rebuffs the intrusion, hoarding his wife’s memory jealously for himself alone.

NEXT LIFE MIGHT BE KINDER elegantly unravels, piece by piece, to reveal the story of a man who must carry the extraordinary gift of a love that spans from this life to the next one.

Date: 06/10/2014
Time: 7:00pm - 8:00pm
Place:

77 Main St
Montpelier, VT 05602