A new novel from Greenpoint-based author, Matt Gallagher (Photo: Nicole Disser)
I’d just barely cracked Matt Gallagher’s debut novel, Youngblood, and, to my surprise, I was really, sincerely into it. Don’t get me wrong, some of my favorite movies happen to be war films (see: Apocalypse Now and MASH) and who can argue that Cormac McCarthy’s descriptions of carnage aren’t some of the more beautiful, vivid bits of contemporary English language literature? But when it comes to the War on Terror, usually I prefer to take my cultural output as dry as it gets.
Richard Flanagan’s latest novel,The Narrow Road to the Deep North, is based on the experience of an Australian man in a Japanese prisoner-of-war camp on the 1943 Thai-Burma death railway. This sounds fairly grim, and indeed the novel oscillates “between scenes of relentless violence and the desolations of war’s aftermath” while nevertheless (!) offering the possibility of redemption. This magician-worthy feat, courtesy of Flanagan’s literary prowess, has been rewarded with a Booker nomination. The author’s previous works (including Gould’s Book of Fish and The Sound of One Hand Clapping) have also been highly praised. See the man himself in conversation with Patrick McGrath, a writer of ‘gothic fiction’. Looks to be a cheery evening, then.
Brewery co-founder Steve Hindy also happens to be an ex-foreign correspondent, and this series sees him in conversation with war reporters and photojournalists who have covered conflict across the globe. Tonight, he’ll be talking to Scott Anderson, author ofLawrence in Arabia: War, Deceit, Imperial Folly and the Making of the Modern Middle East and witness to crises that have taken place from the Middle East to Northern Ireland to El Salvador. Proceeds from the series go towards the non-profit RISC (Reporters Instructed in Saving Colleagues), which provides free first aid training to freelance conflict journalists.
Photojournalist Diego Cupolo has documented sinister environments and the tough lives lived in them from Bushwick to Montevideo. Tonight at WORD, he discusses his recently released book, Seven Syrians: War Accounts From Syrian Refugees. Cupolo painstakingly records the lives of survivors of the current conflict, combining text and photos into a series of compelling portraits. He’ll be in discussion with Brooklyn-based writer/essayist Rahawa Haile.
If the fun and frippery of summer are wearing you out already, explore a darker side of life at these readings, talks, and historical walks.
Tuesday, June 17
The Syrian Refugee Crisis with Diego Cupolo and Rahawa Haile
Photojournalist Diego Cupolo has documented sinister environments and the tough lives lived in them from Bushwick to Montevideo. Tonight at WORD, he discusses his recently released book, Seven Syrians: War Accounts From Syrian Refugees. Cupolo painstakingly records the lives of survivors of the current conflict, combining text and photos into a series of compelling portraits. He’ll be in discussion with Brooklyn-based writer/essayist Rahawa Haile. WORD Bookstore (126 Franklin St), Greenpoint. 7pm. Free. Facebook RSVP encouraged. More →
