Over the course of an extraordinary career that spans more than forty years, John Irving has earned a distinguished reputation as one of the greatest storytellers of our time.
Meet John Irving
Reading and discussing
Last Night at Twisted River (Random House, $28)
Friday, October 30, 7:30pm
The Biltmore Hotel
1200 Anastasia Avenue, Coral Gables
TICKETS REQUIRED:
AUTOGRAPHED BOOK TICKETS – Mr. Irving will pre-sign 200 copies of Last Night at Twisted Riverfor Books & Books. To receive one of these signed copies, you must purchase an AUTOGRAPHED BOOK TICKET for $28 (plus sales tax), which is the cover price of Last Night at Twisted River, at any Books & Books. This ticket will get you admission to the Oct. 30 event, where you will exchange the stub portion of your ticket for a signed copy of Last Night at Twisted River. Supplies are limited to just 200 books.
GENERAL TICKETS – A limited number of FREE tickets will be available for the Oct. 30 event and can be picked up at any Books & Books store. Tickets are limited to ONE (1) PER PERSON. You will not be eligible for a signed copy of Last Night at Twisted River with a General Ticket.
Mr. Irving will not be able to personalize any books or memorabilia. There will not be a signing line at the event.
LAST NIGHT IN TWISTED RIVERis John Irving’s achingly beautiful new novel that explores the profound love between fathers and sons, the mysteries of love and sex, and the relationship between the memories that haunt us and the fiction they inspire.
The year is 1954. In a logging settlement in northern New Hampshire, Dominic Baciagalupo works as a cook, feeding a crew of hungry workers from dawn until dusk. A widower still reeling from the death of his beloved wife years before, Dominic is devoted to his twelve-year-old son Daniel. The camp is a rough and tumble place to raise a child, but the cook will do anything and everything he can to provide for his son.
Dominic is somewhat of a loner and spends much of his time prepping for the meals to come and attending to his duties as a parent. His closest friend is Ketchum, a hard living river man whose musings about life and the ways of the world become more abrasive with each drink he consumes. The two men are remarkably different, yet they are linked by an unusual history. There is also Injun Jane, the kitchen dishwasher, who dotes on young Daniel and offers Dominic companionship on lonely nights. Yet if Jane’s boyfriend, Twisted River’s ruthless lawman Constable Carl, were ever to find out about these trysts, there would be hell to pay.
On a fateful evening, young Daniel makes a tragic mistake that leads to the death of Injun Jane. In a split second, lives are changed forever. Dominic and Daniel are forced to flee Twisted River and become fugitives, trying to escape the vengeance of Constable Carl. In a journey that spans more than half a century, father and son travel from the buttoned-down repression of Boston in the late 1950s and early ‘60s, to the American Midwest at a time when the country is on a collision course with its past and its future, to the melancholic landscape of southern Vermont and, finally, to the Canadian north.
Aided and abetted by an unforgettable cast of characters, Dominic and Daniel experience the triumphs and tragedies that shape a lifetime. Over the years, their relationship deepens, as the roles of the protector and the protected inevitably shift.
In a recent interview, John Irving said, “There’s one thing that readers take away from many of my stories, which is don’t take the people you love for granted. Love them while they’re there, because you don’t know how the story ends.” LAST NIGHT IN TWISTED RIVERis a reminder that we should love the important people in our lives ferociously because, indeed, we do not know how the story ends. Sweeping in its scope and intimate in its exploration of the lives of its characters, the novel is a work of one of America’s greatest storytellers at the height of his powers.
About the Author
JOHN IRVING published his first novel, Setting Free the Bears, in 1968. He has been nominated for a National Book Award three times – winning once, in 1980, for the novel The World According to Garp. He also received an O. Henry Award, in 1981, for the short story “Interior Space.” In 1992, Mr. Irving was inducted into the National Wrestling Hall of Fame in Stillwater, Oklahoma. In 2000, he won the Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay for The Cider House Rules.