In conversation with Francine Prose
Wednesday, September 13, 2 pm Central
Free Virtual Event (registration required)
Rain Taxi proudly presents Anne Enright, one of Ireland’s greatest living writers, to celebrate the U.S. publication of her newest book, The Wren, The Wren—a searing story about the ravages of love across three generations of women that will both break and warm your heart. At this unique event, Enright will be in conversation with acclaimed American author Francine Prose. Join us for an exploration of literary fiction at its finest!
Book Purchasing Information: The Wren, The Wren, other books by Anne Enright, and a selection of titles by Francine Prose, are available from Magers & Quinn Booksellers at the link below. Don’t forget, when you buy books at an event, you support not only the authors and their publishers, but a great independent bookstore and the event host.
About the Book:
Nell McDaragh never knew her grandfather, famed Irish poet Phil McDaragh. But his love poems seem to speak directly to her. Restless, Nell leaves her mother Carmel’s home to find her voice as a writer and live a life of her choosing. Carmel, too, knows the magic of her Daddo’s poetry—and the broken promises within its verses. When Phil abandons the family, Carmel struggles to reconcile “the poet” with the man whose desertion scars Carmel, her sister, and their cancer-ridden mother. The Wren, The Wren brings to life three generations of women who contend with inheritances of both abandonment and a sustaining love that is “more than a strand of DNA, but a rope thrown from the past, a fat twisted rope, full of blood.” In sharp prose studded with crystalline poetry, Enright masterfully braids a family story of longing, betrayal, and hope.
"These pages practically crackle with intelligence, compassion and wit. Phil McDaragh is so real I almost googled him. The Wren, The Wren might just be Anne Enright’s best yet."
“A true masterpiece by one of our greatest novelists. Rich, emotional and brilliantly observed, Anne Enright’s eighth novel, The Wren, The Wren, may even beat her Booker-winner, The Gathering."
“A novel where shards of brilliance flash in every direction.”
About the Authors:
Anne Enright is the author of seven previous novels, most recently Actress, as well as story collections and nonfiction. She has won numerous awards for her writing, including the Man Booker Prize, the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction, and a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Irish Book Awards. She lives in Dublin.
Francine Prose is a novelist and critic whose most recently published book is CLEOPATRA: Her History, Her Myth. Coming up next is a memoir titled 1974: A Personal History, to be published by Harper next year. Her previous books include the novels The Vixen, Goldengrove, A Changed Man, and Blue Angel, which was a finalist for the 2001 National Book Award, and the New York Times nonfiction bestseller Reading Like A Writer: A Guide For People Who Love Books and For Those Who Want to Write Them. She writes frequently for the New York Times Book Review and the New York Review of Books and lives in New York City.
