Thursday, November 13, 2014 - 4:00pm
Description
From two-time Caldecott winner
Chris Van Allsburg, creator of Jumanji and The Polar Express, comes a poignant story of one hamster's struggle with destiny. Being a
pet store hamster isn't much fun for Sweetie Pie, but life in human
homes proves downright perilous. As Sweetie Pie longingly gazes out of
his cage at the squirrels frolicking in the trees, he wonders if he'll
ever have the chance to feel the wind in his fur. Allsburg's expressive,
soft-hued illustrations artfully capture a hamster's-eye view of the
wide and wonderful world where maybe, just maybe, Sweetie Pie could
someday run free.
*Chris Van Allsburg will also join us on Thacker Mountain Radio at 6 p.m.
Description
Without telling her
family, Elyria takes a one-way flight to New Zealand, abruptly leaving
her stable but unfulfilling life in Manhattan. As her husband scrambles
to figure out what happened to her, Elyria hurtles into the unknown,
testing fate by hitchhiking, tacitly being swept into the lives of
strangers, and sleeping in fields, forests, and public parks.
Her risky and often surreal encounters with the people and wildlife of New Zealand propel Elyria deeper into her deteriorating mind. Haunted by her sister’s death and consumed by an inner violence, her growing rage remains so expertly concealed that those who meet her sense nothing unwell. This discord between her inner and outer reality leads her to another obsession: If her truest self is invisible and unknowable to others, is she even alive?
The risks Elyria takes on her journey are paralleled by the risks Catherine Lacey takes on the page. In urgent, spiraling prose she whittles away at the rage within Elyria and exposes the very real, very knowable anxiety of the human condition. And yet somehow Lacey manages to poke fun at her unrelenting self-consciousness, her high-stakes search for the dark heart of the self. In the spirit of Haruki Murakami and Amelia Gray, Nobody Is Ever Missing is full of mordant humor and uncanny insights, as Elyria waffles between obsession and numbness in the face of love, loss, danger, and self-knowledge.
Her risky and often surreal encounters with the people and wildlife of New Zealand propel Elyria deeper into her deteriorating mind. Haunted by her sister’s death and consumed by an inner violence, her growing rage remains so expertly concealed that those who meet her sense nothing unwell. This discord between her inner and outer reality leads her to another obsession: If her truest self is invisible and unknowable to others, is she even alive?
The risks Elyria takes on her journey are paralleled by the risks Catherine Lacey takes on the page. In urgent, spiraling prose she whittles away at the rage within Elyria and exposes the very real, very knowable anxiety of the human condition. And yet somehow Lacey manages to poke fun at her unrelenting self-consciousness, her high-stakes search for the dark heart of the self. In the spirit of Haruki Murakami and Amelia Gray, Nobody Is Ever Missing is full of mordant humor and uncanny insights, as Elyria waffles between obsession and numbness in the face of love, loss, danger, and self-knowledge.
Event address:
160 Courthouse Sq
38655-3914 Oxford
usBooks:
$18.99
ISBN: 9780547315829
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Clarion Books - November 4th, 2014
$15.00
ISBN: 9780374534493
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: FSG Originals - July 8th, 2014