Writers at the Wrecking Bar Presents Ron Rash in conversation with Jessica Handler - The Caretaker
Wednesday, Sep 27, 2023 7:00 PM
Location:
The Marianna Room at the Wrecking Bar Brewpub
292 Moreland Avenue
Atlanta, Georgia 30307
Told against the backdrop of the Korean War as a small Appalachian town sends its sons to battle, "The Caretaker" by award-winning author Ron Rash ("One of the great American authors at work today" —The New York Times) is a breathtaking love story and a searing examination of the acts we seek to justify in the name of duty, family, honor, and love.
At the September edition of Writers at the Wrecking Bar, A Cappella Books is delighted to welcome New York Times bestselling author Ron Rash to celebrate the release of his highly-anticipated new novel, "The Caretaker." Rash will appear in conversation with Jessica Handler, award-winning author of "The Magnetic Girl."
Musician Caroline Herring will lead off this Writers at the Wrecking Bar event by playing a live set at 7 PM.
Presented in partnership with Stuckey's.
About the Book
It's 1951 in Blowing Rock, North Carolina. Blackburn Gant, his life irrevocably altered by a childhood case of polio, seems condemned to spend his life among the dead as the sole caretaker of a hilltop cemetery. It suits his withdrawn personality, and the inexplicable occurrences that happen from time to time rattle him less than interaction with the living. But when his best and only friend, the kind but impulsive Jacob Hampton, is conscripted to serve overseas, Blackburn is charged with caring for Jacob's wife, Naomi, as well.
Sixteen-year-old Naomi Clarke is an outcast in Blowing Rock, an outsider, poor and uneducated, who works as a seasonal maid in the town's most elegant hotel. When Naomi eloped with Jacob a few months after her arrival, the marriage scandalized the community, most of all his wealthy parents who disinherited him. Shunned by the townsfolk for their differences and equally fearful that Jacob may never come home, Blackburn and Naomi grow closer and closer until a shattering development derails numerous lives.
A tender examination of male friendship and rivalry as well as a riveting, page-turning novel of familial devotion, "The Caretaker" brilliantly depicts the human capacity for delusion and destruction all too often justified as acts of love.
About the Author
Ron Rash is the author of the PEN/Faulkner finalist and New York Times bestselling novel "Serena," in addition to the critically acclaimed novels "The Risen," "Above the Waterfall," "The Cove," "One Foot in Eden," "Saints at the River," and "The World Made Straight"; five collections of poems; and seven collections of stories, among them "Burning Bright," which won the 2010 Frank O'Connor International Short Story Award, "Nothing Gold Can Stay," a New York Times bestseller, and "Chemistry and Other Stories," which was a finalist for the 2007 PEN/Faulkner Award. Three times the recipient of the O. Henry Prize, his books have been translated into seventeen languages. He teaches at Western Carolina University.
About the Conversation Partner
Jessica Handler is the author of "The Magnetic Girl," winner of the 2020 Southern Book Prize, an Indie Next selection, Wall Street Journal Spring ’19 pick, Bitter Southerner Summer ’19 pick and SIBA Okra pick. She is the author of the nonfiction books "Braving the Fire: A Guide to Writing About Grief" and "Invisible Sisters: A Memoir," which was named one of the “Books All Georgians Should Read” and Atlanta Magazine’s “Best Memoir of 2009.” Jessica’s essays and nonfiction features have appeared on NPR, in Tin House, Drunken Boat, Full Grown People, Brevity, The Bitter Southerner, Electric Literature, Oldster, Newsweek, The Washington Post, and More Magazine. She lives in Atlanta with her husband, novelist Mickey Dubrow.
About Writers at the Wrecking Bar
A Cappella Books presents Writers at the Wrecking Bar, a series of live author interview events showcasing some of the country's freshest voices in literary and contemporary fiction. Each program includes writers in conversation with an arbiter of Atlanta's book scene, giving the audience a chance to experience and participate in the Q&A and get a signed copy of the book. Held upstairs in the Marianna Room of the Wrecking Bar Brewpub, Writers at the Wrecking Bar hosts a cash bar, starting at 7 PM. The author conversation and book signing follow at 7:30 PM.
