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O'Neill Reads Book Club: Lapvona

  • 176 Rue Bernard Ouest Montréal, QC, H2T 2K2 Canada (map)

We will be meeting in person at La Petite Librairie Drawn & Quarterly, located at 176 rue Bernard O at 7 pm on Thursday September 15th. Join us for the discussion!

**PLEASE NOTE** The attendance for this meeting will be limited to 20 book club guests and will be based on a first come, first served basis. All those present will be required to wear a mask for the duration of the meeting.

The O’Neill Reads Bookclub is hosted by author Heather O’Neill and her daughter Arizona O’Neill! This duo will be choosing new and controversial literary fiction for us to gather and discuss.

Where and How Can I purchase the book?
Find the book here: https://bit.ly/3pegeHW
More info on our webstore here:
mtlshop.drawnandquarterly.com/faq
We Ship Canada-wide!
By purchasing your book at Librairie Drawn & Quarterly you help support events like this one, independent publishing and retailing, our neighborhood, and authors both local and from around the world who depend on independent bookstores for their livelihood. Your support is appreciated.
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LAPVONA: In a village in a medieval fiefdom buffeted by natural disasters, a motherless shepherd boy finds himself the unlikely pivot of a power struggle that puts all manner of faith to a savage test, in a spellbinding novel that represents Ottessa Moshfegh’s most exciting leap yet.

Little Marek, the abused and delusional son of the village shepherd, never knew his mother; his father told him she died in childbirth. One of life’s few consolations for Marek is his enduring bond with the blind village midwife, Ina, who suckled him when he was a baby, as she did so many of the village’s children. Ina’s gifts extend beyond childcare: she possesses a unique ability to communicate with the natural world. Her gift often brings her the transmission of sacred knowledge on levels far beyond those available to other villagers, however religious they might be. For some people, Ina’s home in the woods outside of the village is a place to fear and to avoid, a godless place.

Among their number is Father Barnabas, the town priest and lackey for the depraved lord and governor, Villiam, whose hilltop manor contains a secret embarrassment of riches. The people’s desperate need to believe that there are powers that be who have their best interests at heart is put to a cruel test by Villiam and the priest, especially in this year of record drought and famine. But when fate brings Marek into violent proximity to the lord’s family, new and occult forces upset the old order. By year’s end, the veil between blindness and sight, life and death, the natural world and the spirit world, will prove to be very thin indeed.
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OTTESSA MOSHFEGH is a fiction writer from New England. Eileen, her first novel, was shortlisted for the National Book Critics Circle Award and the Man Booker Prize, and won the PEN/Hemingway Award for debut fiction. My Year of Rest and Relaxation, Death in Her Hands, and Lapvona, her next three novels, were New York Times bestsellers. She is also the author of the short story collection Homesick for Another World and a novella, McGlue. She lives in Southern California.
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Librairie Drawn & Quarterly recognizes that our bookstores are located on the unceded territory of the Kanien’kehá:ka. Many of us refer to Montreal as our home, but it is named Tiohtiá:ke. This has always been a gathering place for many First Nations and continues to be home to a diverse population of Indigenous peoples. It is important to think about how each and every one of us has arrived here. We are grateful that creating and sharing stories has been a part of this land for thousands of years and we urge you to seek out a story that is different from your own.
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Please email events@drawnandquarterly.com if you have any questions!

Earlier Event: September 15
Book Launch: Tear by Erica McKeen
Later Event: September 16
An Evening With Billy-Ray Belcourt