Village Books & Paper Dreams - Fairhaven
Sun: 10am-8pm
Mon-Sat: 9am-8pm
 
Village Books - Lynden
Sun-Tues: 10am-5pm
Wed-Sat: 10am-6pm

Ruth Ozeki in Conversation with Karen Joy Fowler, The Book of Form and Emptiness

Printer-friendly versionPrinter-friendly version
Wed, 09/22/2021 - 6:00pm to 7:00pm
Event address: 

Village Books is joining forces with Third Place Books and Elliott Bay Book Company to bring you this unique virtual event as part of Ruth Ozeki's tour. And we are pleased to announce that Ruth Ozeki, a Whatcom READS alumna, will be joined in by celebrated author Karen Joy Fowler. 
This is a ticketed event where one ticket includes event access and one autographed copy of The Book of Form and Emptiness! Tickets are $35**.

CLICK HERE TO ATTEND

About The Book of Form and Emptiness:

A brilliantly inventive novel about loss, growing up, and our relationship with things.
One year after the death of his beloved musician father, thirteen-year-old Benny Oh begins to hear voices. The voices belong to the things in his house—a sneaker, a broken Christmas ornament, a piece of wilted lettuce. Although Benny doesn’t understand what these things are saying, he can sense their emotional tone; some are pleasant, a gentle hum or coo, but others are snide, angry and full of pain. When his mother, Annabelle, develops a hoarding problem, the voices grow more clamorous.
At first, Benny tries to ignore them, but soon the voices follow him outside the house, onto the street and at school, driving him at last to seek refuge in the silence of a large public library, where objects are well-behaved and know to speak in whispers. There, Benny discovers a strange new world. He falls in love with a mesmerizing street artist with a smug pet ferret, who uses the library as her performance space. He meets a homeless philosopher-poet, who encourages him to ask important questions and find his own voice amongst the many.
And he meets his very own Book—a talking thing—who narrates Benny’s life and teaches him to listen to the things that truly matter.
With its blend of sympathetic characters, riveting plot, and vibrant engagement with everything from jazz, to climate change, to our attachment to material possessions, The Book of Form and Emptiness is classic Ruth Ozeki—bold, wise, poignant, playful, humane and heartbreaking.

“Heart-breaking and heart-healing—The Book of Form and Emptiness is a triumph.” —Matt Haig, New York Times bestselling author of The Midnight Library

Ruth Ozeki is a novelist, filmmaker, and Zen Buddhist priest. She is the award-winning author of three other novels, My Year of Meats, All Over Creation, and A Tale for the Time Being, which was a finalist for the 2013 Booker Prize. Her nonfiction work includes a memoir, The Face: A Time Code, and the documentary film, Halving the Bones. She is affiliated with the Everyday Zen Foun­dation and teaches creative writing at Smith College, where she is the Grace Jarcho Ross 1933 Professor of Humanities. 

Karen Joy Fowler is the author of seven novels, including Sarah Canary, which won the Commonwealth medal for best first novel by a Californian and The Jane Austen Book Club, a New York Times bestseller.  Also three short story collections, two of which won the World Fantasy Award in their respective years. Her novel We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves, won the PEN/FAULKNER for fiction in 2013 and was shortlisted for the Man/Booker.  She currently lives in Santa Cruz and has recently finished a historical novel, Booth, that will be published in 2022.

*WHILE SUPPLIES LAST

**BOOKS WILL BE SHIPPED VIA USPS MEDIA MAIL

WE DO NOT OFFER INTERNATIONAL SHIPPING

This event is co-presented by three independent bookstores in Western Washington - Village Books, the Elliott Bay Book Company, and Third Place Books. Your copy of The Book of Form and Emptiness will ship from Village Books the day after the event.

Books: 
The Book of Form and Emptiness: A Novel By Ruth Ozeki Cover Image
$30.00
Email or call for price.
ISBN: 9780399563645
Published: Viking - September 21st, 2021

Booth By Karen Joy Fowler Cover Image
$28.00
Email or call for price.
ISBN: 9780593331439
Published: G.P. Putnam's Sons - March 8th, 2022

We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves: A Novel By Karen Joy Fowler Cover Image
$18.00
ISBN: 9780142180822
Availability: Not in-stock currently-usually arrives within 1-14 business days
Published: G.P. Putnam's Sons - February 25th, 2014

A Tale for the Time Being: A Novel By Ruth Ozeki Cover Image
$19.00
ISBN: 9780143124870
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Penguin Books - December 31st, 2013

My Year of Meats: A Novel By Ruth Ozeki Cover Image
$18.00
ISBN: 9780140280463
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Penguin Books - March 1st, 1999

What I Didn't See and Other Stories By Karen Joy Fowler Cover Image
$16.00
ISBN: 9781931520485
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Small Beer Press - April 23rd, 2013

The Jane Austen Book Club By Karen Joy Fowler Cover Image
$17.00
ISBN: 9780452286535
Availability: Not in-stock currently-usually arrives within 1-14 business days
Published: G.P. Putnam's Sons - April 26th, 2005

Author Photo: 
Location: