Pasha Malla, a scant week-and-a-bit after his debut novel comes out, will be reading from People Park and shakin' hands and being an all-around stand-up-- er sit-down?-- guy! The evening will be hosted by Librairie friend and local author Anna Leventhal (The Art of Trespassing).
Pasha Malla lived in Montreal briefly, and has since made the move to Toronto. His first collection of short stories, The Withdrawal Method, was a critical success, winning the Trillium Book Award and the Danuta Gleed Literary Awards, and making it onto the short- and long-list of the Commonwealth Prize and Scotiabank Giller Prize respectively.
That's just one of the many reasons we're delighted to have Pasha in-store though. Did we mention the book itself?
From the book description: "As the entire island comes together for the event, we meet an unforgettable cross-section of its inhabitants, from activists to nihilists, art stars to athletes, families to inveterate loners. Soon, however, what has promised to be a triumph of civic harmony begins to reveal its shadow side ... [and] the island is plunged into a series of unnatural disasters that force people to confront what they are really made of. People Park is a tour de force of eerily prescient, grotesque, and hilarious observation and a narrative of gripping, unrelenting suspense."
From the Quill & Quire review: "Malla ... tells the story of an entire community lurched into existential crisis. People Park ... unfolds a unique and fully realized fictional world in which the author explores themes of displacement, isolation, and reunification with flashes of dark humour."
The Straight says of People Park: "The world of Malla’s novel is an imaginative feat, with a culture, geography, and citizenry each built from scratch."
Edit: And, fresh off the presses, a great review at the Gazette!
Once more, that's Friday July 13, 7 pm at the Librairie D+Q (211 Bernard O.).
