Norway meets New York in a double book launch event for Johan Harstad’s Buzz Aldrin, What Happened to you in All the Confusion? (Seven Stories Press) and the paperback release of Garth Risk Hallberg’s A Field Guide to the North American Family (Mark Batty Publisher), Monday June 6th at 7pm.
Harstad and Hallberg will come together at Housing Works Bookstore for an evening of conversation on topics of family, isolation, personal evolution, graphic design, modern fiction, and more, along with readings from both books and music by Brooklyn guitar/electronics duo Sweater. Books sold through Housing Works Bookstore and refreshments available in the Housing Works café.
In this debut novel by the Brage Prize-winning author n+1 Book Review called "one of the most important writers of his generation" and described by his Norwegian publisher as the "Norwegian Murakami", Buzz Aldrin, What Happened to you in All the Confusion? tells the strange and epic tale of a thirty-something gardener in Stavanger, Norway who idolized Buzz Aldrin, the second man on the moon for his willingness to give up the glory of being first for the success of the mission, in an unconventional story about unconventional psychiatry, the Faroe Islands, amateur boat building, and the journey across the space that divides us from other people: a journey as remote and dangerous as the trip to the moon itself.
About Johan Harstad
"There's so much music, exuberance, bewilderment and sweet melancholy in Johan Harstad's Buzz Aldrin. It's rock 'n' roll, then heartbreaking, then rock 'n' roll again. I devoured every line." --Paolo Giordano, author of The Solitude of Prime Numbers
"One of the best novels I've read in a long time. If you're a fan of writers like Milan Kundera and yes, Jonathan Safran Foer, you'll likely enjoy Johan Harstad's Buzz Aldrin, What Happened to You in All the Confusion? " --another
About Garth Risk Hallberg
Called "a gorgeous labyrinth of a book" by Rivka Galchen (author of Atmospheric Disturbances) and "a perfect marriage between sculptured form and wondrous content" by Reif Larson (The Selected Works of T.S. Spivet), Garth Risk Hallberg's A Field Guide to the North American Family tells the story of two families in the same Long Island neighborhood, who for years have coexisted peacefully, yet whose suburban lives are thrown into chaos by the death of one family's patriarch, leaving the survivors with a stark imperative: adapt or face extinction.
"Hallberg's prose is lacquered and precise, and the kaleidoscope of collected images forms a shifting, luminous backdrop. A perfect marriage between sculptured form and wondrous content. Read it. Now." --Reif Larsen, author ofThe Selected Works of T.S. Spivet
"Essential for anyone who likes to feel bad about themselves, reminisce about times you felt empty, or wonder about where things went wrong. "
--Amazon review
For more information visit:
Launch event at Housing Works
Seven Stories Press