November 6 | 7:00 pm

Montreal Review of Books 20th Anniversary Reading

A celebration of 20 years of the Montreal Review of Books!

With readings by three local writers–Kathleen Winter, Xue Yiwei, and Linda Besner–all featured in the brand-new 54th issue of the Montreal Review of Books, plus refreshments and mRbilia.pin

La Petite Librairie Drawn & Quarterly, 176 Bernard O.

More event info here & excerpted below.

Readers:

LOST IN SEPTEMBER by Kathleen Winter
From one of Canada’s most exciting writers comes a gripping, compassionate and stunning novel that overturns and rewrites history. Enter the world of Jimmy–a tall, red-haired, homeless thirty-something ex-soldier, battered by PTSD–as he camps out on the streets of modern-day Montreal, trying to remember and reclaim his youth. While his past is something of an enigma, even to himself, the young man bears a striking resemblance to General James Wolfe, “Conqueror of Canada” and “Hero of Quebec,” who died on the Plains of Abraham in 1759.

DR. BETHUNE’S CHILDREN by Xue Yiwei
Dr. Bethune’s Children tells the stories of the offspring of two ordinary families marked by cataclysms both natural and man-made — from the Cultural Revolution to the Tiananmen Square massacre, against a backdrop of the international developments that have rocked everyday life from the Cold War to the emergence of the super power that China is today. Though banned in China, Dr. Bethune’s Children is also hailed as a masterpiece. In focusing on the distress and repression that have marked a whole generation, Xue Yiwei unveils the human heart.

FEEL HAPPIER IN NINE SECONDS by Linda Besner
This collection is a universe where minimalism and maximalism work in harmony. Ethics, economics, glamour and alternative physics are just a few of the vehicles Besner uses in her jaundiced pursuit of knowledge and joy. At the collection’s core is a series of brilliantly illuminated poems patterned on a scientific study of synaesthesia and Fisher Price refrigerator magnets. Besner’s courageous comparisons and musicality provide the critical happiness we all need.

Drawn & Quarterly accessibility information:
-The bathroom is gender neutral
-The space is unfortunately not wheelchair accessible (details: two steps at the main door, we would be happy to help you lift a wheelchair and make space in the corridor)
– It is not a sober space, our events sometimes offer alcohol.