A PEN By the Book event: Randy Boyagoda & John Irving
Join Randy Boyagoda (Dante’s Indiana) in conversation with fellow author John Irving (The World According to Garp) for an evening of humour! From God, faith and family to politics and sex, nothing seems to be off limits in their work. In this conversation, two literary friends—a believer and a nonbeliever—discuss how humour in fiction can challenge our cherished beliefs. This virtual event will take place on Thursday, January 20 at 7PM EDT.
Register to join here!
More details here.
Get your copy of Dante’s Indiana from Biblioasis here!
A Winnipeg Free Press Top Read of 2021
Middle-aged, married, but living on his own, Prin has lost his way. Desperate for money and purpose, he moves to small-town Indiana to work for an evangelical millionaire who’s building a theme park inspired by Dante’s Inferno. He quickly becomes involved in the difficult lives of his co-workers and in the wider struggles of their opioid-ravaged community while trying to reconcile with his distant wife and distant God. Both projects spin out of control, and when a Black teenager is killed, creationists, politicians and protesters alike descend. In the midst of this American chaos, Prin risks everything to help the lost and angry souls around him while searching for his own way home.
Following Original Prin, a New York Times Book Review Editor’s Choice and Globe and Mail Best Book, Dante’s Indiana is affecting and strange, intimate and big-hearted—an extraordinary journey through the darkly divine comedies of our time.
Randy Boyagoda is the author of six books, including the novels Governor of the Northern Province, Beggar’s Feast, and Original Prin. His work has been nominated for the Scotiabank Giller Prize, IMPAC Dublin Literary Prize, and named a Globe and Mail Best Book of the year and New York Times Book Review Editor’s Choice. An essayist, book critic and radio columnist, he is a professor of English at the University of Toronto, where he lives with his wife and their four daughters.
