Aug 24, 2024
Tickets are available to Friends of the National Writers Series 4/18 at 10am and to the public 4/24 at 10am.
Special note regarding a two-ticket/one book purchase: ONLY ONE BUNDLE (2 tickets/1 book) can be purchased per order. For more than one bundle, please place additional order(s) or call the City Opera House at 231-941-8082 ext. 201. Thank you!
Don’t miss Peter Heller and his conversation with guest host Doug Stanton about his new novel, Burn. Heller’s tale takes you to the edge of doom with both a blistering warning of a divided country’s political strife and an ode to the salvation of our chosen families.
Heller, a favorite with NWS audiences, writes of two men—friends since boyhood—who emerge from the woods of rural Maine to a dystopian country wracked by bewildering violence.
Each year, Jess and Storey have made an annual pilgrimage to northern Maine, where they camp, hunt, and hike, leaving much from their long friendship unspoken. Maine is convulsed with secession mania that’s spread across other states, but Jess and Storey figure it’s a fight reserved for legislators or folks in the capitol. But after two weeks of hunting moose off the grid, the men reach a small town and are shocked to find a bridge blown apart, buildings burned to the ground, and bombed-out cars abandoned on the road.
Trying to make sense of the sudden destruction all around them, the men set their sights on finding their way home, dragging a wagon across bumpy dirt roads, ransacking boats left in the lakes, and dodging men who are armed—secessionists or military, they cannot tell. And then, a startling discovery, a child in the cabin of a boat, drastically alters their path and the stakes of their escape. Drenched with the beauty of the natural world, and attuned to the specific cadences of male friendship, even here at the edge of doom.
Peter Heller is the bestselling author of The Last Ranger, The Guide, The River, Celine, The Painter, and The Dog Stars, which was published in 22 languages. Heller is also the author of four nonfiction books, including Catching the Perfect Wave, which was awarded the National Outdoor Book Award. He holds an MFA in poetry and fiction from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop and lives in Denver, Colorado.
Guest host Doug Stanton is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of In Harm’s Way, The Odyssey of Echo Company and 12 Strong, which was made into a motion picture. He holds an MFA in poetry and fiction from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop and is a co-founder of the National Writers Series. He and his wife, Anne, live in Traverse City.
The event begins at 7 p.m. and includes a Q and A and author signing. Each ticket comes with a signed hardcover copy of Burn (or opt for a two-ticket package with one book. Only one two-ticket/one book package can be purchased per order. For additional packages, please call the City Opera House at 231-941-8082.)