Literary Notes: Author of ‘Vox’ will launch her new novel on Tuesday
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How unlikely is it? America is in economic collapse, with failing infrastructure, looting, and death and gangs everywhere. A man quits his family; under duress, his wife heads with their daughter to the “womyn’s commune” her mother founded. It’s ... worse. There are no men, but babies are being born — all girls.
Norfolk’s Christina Dalcher, author of the bestseller “Vox,” lays out the scenario in “Femlandia” (Berkley, 336 pp.). She’ll launch it Tuesday with a discussion, Q&A and signing at Elation Brewing, in Norfolk.
In “Vox” she detailed an America that limits women and girls to 100 spoken words each day. Now she explores “toxic masculinity, objectification, and systemic patriarchal oppression,” says Publishers Weekly, calling her novel “a delightfully dark dystopian twist” on Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s 1915 utopian tale, “Herland.”
Details: 6 p.m., 5104 Colley Ave. 757-550-4827. Books from Prince Books.
Sunday (the17th): director Ken Kwapis, Q&A with The Muse. The film and TV director joins screenwriting instructor Diane Fine to discuss protocols for writers. His credits include “A Walk in the Woods,” “He’s Just Not That Into You,” “The Office” and “The Larry Sanders Show” — and his memoir, “But What I Really Want to Do Is Direct.” 4 to 5 p.m. online; register for Zoom link at the-muse.org. Free. 757-818-9880.
At 7 p.m. Wednesday, Lauren Blackwood discusses her debut — a YA fantasy romance and Indie Next Pick — with Jordan Ifueko, a Nebula finalist and author of the Raybearer series. In “Within These Wicked Walls” (Wednesday Books, 336 pp.), Andromeda, a “debtera” (exorcist), finds a crucial patron — a handsome heir named Magnus Rochester. She loves him. But he’s cursed. Online; register for Zoom link at prince-books.com.
Regional author Heather Weidner’s Jules Keene glamping mystery series launches Tuesday. In “Vintage Trailers and Blackmailers” (Level Best Books), a guest at Keene’s glamour-camping resort in the Blue Ridge finds another guest murdered. The dead man was hiding something. Then a reporter dies.
Reminder: Nathaniel Philbrick, 7 p.m. Thursday, Williamsburg, discussing “Travels With George: In Search of Washington and His Legacy.” Free. Book Warehouse, Premium Outlets, 5625 Richmond Road. 757-565-9801.
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Sue Grafton’s novels, on TV: A+E Studios has acquired rights to her alphabet series (“A is for Alibi,” etc.). Grafton famously swore off screen versions of her Kinsey Millhone mysteries, having written unhappily for film in the 1980s. But TV has changed, her husband says, and the family agrees that Grafton, who died in 2017, “would bless this decision.” (AP)
Sally Rooney is delaying having “Beautiful World, Where Are You” translated into Hebrew: Her Israeli publisher, Modan, won’t “publicly distance itself from apartheid” and support U.N.-declared rights of Palestinians. She cites reports by Human Rights Watch and B’Tselem, and says she hopes to find a Hebrew-language translator. (AP)
Obituary notes: Martin Sherwin was 84. He co-wrote the Pulitzer-winning biography of J. Robert Oppenheimer, father of the a-bomb; “Gambling With Armageddon”; and others.
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New and recent
From Gayl Jones, “Palmares,” her first novel since 1999. (Beacon, 512 pp.) It starts a series focused on Almeyda, an enslaved girl in Brazil “who makes her way to a utopia where Black people are free.” The settlement is destroyed and she journeys seeking her lost husband. (NYT)
From David Sedaris, “A Carnival of Snackery: Diaries (2003-2020),” his second volume of diaries. ... John Grisham, “The Judge’s List,” due Tuesday.
At PilotOnline.com and DailyPress.com: Reviews of Hillary Clinton and Louise Penny’s “State of Terror”; Ruth Ozeki’s “The Book of Form and Emptiness”; and more.
— Erica Smith, erica.smith@pilotonline.com
