Toronto Public Library
Bestselling author Heather O'Neill discusses her new novel, a stunning dark fairytale of survival and betrayal.
Heather O'Neill: The Capital of Dreams
Date: September 09, 2024
Time: 7:00 p.m. - 8:00 p.m.
Location: Concourse Event Space, North York Central Library, 5120 Yonge Street, Toronto, Ontario
The Capital of Dreams introduces us to Sofia Bottom, who lives in a small country that Europe has forgotten. But inside its borders, the old myths of trees that come alive and faeries who live among their roots have given way to an explosion of the arts and the consolations of philosophy. No one, from the clarinetists to the cabaret singers, is as revered in the arts as Sofia's brilliant mother, the writer Clara Bottom. How can 14-year-old Sofia, with a tin ear and an enduring love of the old myths, ever hope to win her mother's love?
When the country's greatest enemy invades, and the Capital is under threat, Clara finally turns to her daughter. Sofia must smuggle her new manuscript to safety on the last train evacuating children from the city. But the train draws to a suspicious halt in the middle of a forest, and Sofia must run for her life, losing her mother's most prized possession. Now frightened and alone in a country at war, Sofia must find a way to reclaim what she has lost. On an epic journey through woods and razed towns, colliding with soldiers, survivors and other lost children, Sofia must make a choice between kindness and survival.
Heather O'Neill speaks with award-winning writer Emma Donoghue about The Capital of Dreams, a novel that once again reveals that she is a master of language.
Q&A and book signing to follow. Books available for purchase.
Ticket registration for this event is required: Free tickets are available book via Eventbrite.
Creation Lake by Rachel Kushner
Date: Friday, September 13, 2024
Time: 7:00 pm - 8:00 pm
Location: Toronto Reference Library, Bram & Bluma Appel Salon, 789 Yonge St., Toronto, Ontario
Creation Lake is a novel about a secret agent, a thirty-four-year-old American woman with ruthless tactics, bold opinions, and clean beauty, who is sent to do dirty work in France. “Sadie Smith” is how the narrator introduces herself to her lover, to the rural commune of French subversives on whom she is keeping tabs, and to the reader.
Sadie has met her love, Lucien, a young and well-born Parisian, by “cold bump”—making him believe the encounter was accidental. Like everyone Sadie targets, Lucien is useful to her and used by her. Sadie operates by strategy and dissimulation, based on what her “contacts”—shadowy figures in business and government—instruct. First, these contacts want her to incite provocation.
Then they want more. In this region of centuries-old farms and ancient caves, Sadie becomes entranced by a mysterious figure named Bruno Lacombe, a mentor to the young activists who communicate only by email. Bruno believes that the path to emancipation from what ails modern life is not revolt, but a return to the ancient past. Just as Sadie is certain she’s the seductress and puppet master of those she surveils, Bruno Lacombe is seducing her with his ingenious counter-histories, his artful laments, and his own tragic story. Written in short, vaulting sections, Rachel Kushner’s rendition of “noir” is taut and dazzling. Creation Lake is Kushner’s finest achievement yet as a novelist, a work of high art, high comedy, and unforgettable pleasure.
In conversation with author Sheila Heti.
Q&A and book signing to follow. Books available for purchase.
Ticket registration for this event is required: Free tickets are available to book via Eventbrite.
