Literary pick of the week: Book set on remote Kodiak Archipelago is highly anticipated
How’s this for an intriguing plot?
Mira, 18, arrived on idyllic Lavender Island Wilderness Lodge on the remote Kodiak Archipelago to work as a baker and housekeeper, but her plans are more perverse than a summer job. She is nursing twin obsessions: a working theory of what constitutes ‘sleaze’ (including dive bars, big rigs, Formica kitchen tables), and the erotic pursuit of a young fisherman she deems the embodiment of all things sleazy. But things are not what they seem on the island as Mira learns when a jovial, predatory patriarch arrives on the scene.
That’s the basis of Rebecca Rukeyser’s “The Seaplane On Final Approach,” selected by Lit Hub and The Millions as one of the most anticipated books of 2022.
The author, who teaches creative writing at Bard College Berlin, will discuss her novel at 7 p.m. Thursday, June 16, in conversation with Asali Solomon, a National Book Foundation “5 under 35” honoree. Virtual event. Registration required at magersandquinn.com/event.
Publishers Weekly calls the novel “(An) intoxicating debut” and Kirkus says it is “A strange, dreamlike coming-of-age story … (it) invites rumination of themes of obsession and fixation, the dichotomous beauty and eeriness of an isolated landscape, and the struggle of locating oneself within a new environment.”
