NINA REVOYR, ELIZABETH CRANE & ABRAHAM RODRIGUEZ, JR.
Saturday, April 19 at 7:30 p.m.

We're pleased to preset another showcase of authors published by Akashic Books, a Brooklyn-based independent press dedicated to "the reverse gentrification of the literary world." Nina Revoyr makes a welcome return to Elliott Bay. Last here with hers stunning, award-winning novel Southland, tonight she reads from The Age of Dreaming—a novel set both in the early days of silent film and the 1960s. It features a Japanese-born American film star and is rich with historical detail. Silent film buffs will recognize the inspiration for the novel's central character. Elizabeth Crane reads from her third short-story collection, You Must Be This Happy to Enter. Praised by the New York Times and Entertainment Weekly, Elizabeth Crane's stories sometimes include zombies, are hyper-real, humorous, and (she says) ultra-sincere. It has been way too long since Abraham Rodriguez—who briefly lived in Seattle—has been here with self or book. That is finally remedied tonight with his being here for a long-awaited new novel, South by South Bronx. This is both a crime story and a love story, featuring a writer and painter who are both having dry spells; a drug dealer trying to make money off of a terrorist group; and a Puerto Rican man who wakes up with a mysterious woman in his bed. All of this is connected. Abraham Rodriguez's earlier books, which include Boy Without a Flag and Spidertown, received much praise, the latter an American Book Award.

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