[SOLD OUT] Tuesday Night Showcase – $20

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This event is SOLD OUT. Please join us instead for Roots Roundup on Tuesday, October 11, 7pm at the Glenbow Museum.

[gdlr_space height="20px"] An impressive range of storytelling gusto is on display as four award-winning writers give short readings and on-stage interviews about their latest books. André Alexis explores themes of honor, faith and sin in The Hidden Keys, inspired by a reading of Robert Louis Stevenson's Treasure Island. Booker Prize longlister Madeleine Thien delves into the lives of two successive generations in a novel set before, during and after the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989. Tim Falconer — a self-confessed “bad singer” — is one of the 2.5 percent of the population afflicted with amusia. Jim Lynch gives us a grand and idiosyncratic family saga set on a seafaring vessel. In Precious Cargo, Craig Davidson tells the unvarnished story of his unlikely relationship with the kids he drove on School Bus 3077. Hosted by Jennifer Keene. [gdlr_divider type="solid" size="100%" ]

Featured Books

The Hidden Keys by André Alexis

Inspired by a reading of Robert Louis Stevenson’s Treasure Island, André Alexis' novel questions what it means to be honourable, what it means to be faithful and what it means to sin. Tancred Palmieri, a thief with elegant and erudite tastes, meets Willow Azarian, an aging heroin addict. She reveals to Tancred that her very wealthy father has recently passed away, leaving each of his five children a mysterious object that provides one clue to the whereabouts of a large inheritance. Willow enlists Tancred to steal these objects from her siblings and help her solve the puzzle.

Precious Cargo: My Year of Driving the Kids on School Bus 3077 by Craig Davidson

Before his writing career flourished, Craig Davidson experienced a period of poverty, apparent failure and despair. In this new work of riveting and timely non-fiction, Davidson tells the unvarnished story of one transformative year in his life and of his unlikely relationships with a handful of unique and vibrant children who were, to his initial astonishment and bewilderment, and eventual delight, placed in his care for a couple of hours each day — the kids on School Bus 3077.

Bad Singer: The Surprising Science of Tone Deafness and How We Hear Music by Tim Falconer

Tim Falconer — a self-confessed “bad singer” — is one of the 2.5 percent of the population afflicted with amusia. In other words, he is scientifically tone-deaf. Bad Singer chronicles Falconer's quest to understand the brain science behind tone-deafness and his search for ways to retrain the adult brain. He is tested by numerous scientists who are as fascinated with him as he is with them. Falconer also investigates why we love music, and deconstructs what we are really hearing when we listen to it. A mix of scientific discovery, musicology and personal odyssey, Bad Singer is a fascinating, insightful and highly entertaining account from an award-winning journalist and author.

Before the Wind by Jim Lynch

In Before the Wind, Jim Lynch gives us a grand and idiosyncratic family saga with the grace and humour of a talented storyteller. Joshua Johannssen has spent all of his life surrounded by sailboats. His grandfather designed them, his father built and raced them, his Einstein-obsessed mother knows why and how they work (or not). Suddenly thirty-one, Josh is pained and confused by whatever went wrong with his volatile family. His parents are barely speaking, his mystified grandfather is drinking harder, and he himself—despite an endless and comic flurry of online dates—hasn’t even come close to finding a girlfriend. When the seafaring Johannssens unexpectedly find themselves reunited on a classic vessel their family built decades ago, past and present collide into heart-shattering revelations.

Do not Say We Have Nothing by Madeleine Thien

Longlisted for the 2016 Man Booker Prize, Do Not Say We Have Nothing is an extraordinary novel set in China before, during and after one of the most important political moments of the past century. Thien takes us inside an extended family in China, showing us the lives of two successive generations—those who lived through Mao's Cultural Revolution in the mid-twentieth century; and the children of the survivors, who became the students protesting in Tiananmen Square in 1989. [gdlr_button href="https://shop.artscommons.ca/single/selectSeating.aspx?p=10981&id=113B1836-6B06-4999-924A-126BEFAFBFCC" target="_self" size="medium" background="#358CCB" color="#ffffff" border_color="#999999"]Buy Tickets[/gdlr_button]