DC Reads is back\, and this year\, we are doing things a little different. In partnership with the PEN/Faulkner Foundat ion's Voices of DC event\, we are inviting the community to read and d iscuss three different titles written by members of DC's literary communit y. We will host three different online book discussions culminating in a l ive conversation with all three authors in February.
\nOur first Jan uary discussion will focus on Tania James's Loot\, a s pellbinding historical novel. Check out the book with your library card or look for giveaway copies of the book at your neighborhood library courtes y of the DC Public Library Foundation. Register below\, and we will send i nformation about the online conversation as well as the following events i n January and February.
\nAbout the book: \;A s pellbinding historical novel set in the eighteenth century: a hero&rsquo\; s quest\, a love story\, the story of a young artist coming of age\, and a n exuberant heist adventure that traces the bloody legacy of colonialism a cross two continents and fifty years.
\nAbbas is just seventeen year s old when his gifts as a woodcarver come to the attention of Tipu Sultan\ , and he is drawn into service at the palace in order to build a giant tig er automaton for Tipu&rsquo\;s sons\, a gift to commemorate their return f rom British captivity. His fate&mdash\;and the fate of the wooden tiger he helps create&mdash\;will mirror the vicissitudes of nations and dynasties ravaged by war across India and Europe.
\nWorking alongside the leg
endary French clockmaker Lucien du Leze\, Abbas hones his craft\, learns F
rench\, and meets Jehanne\, the daughter of a French expatriate. \; Wh
en Du Leze is finally permitted to return home to Rouen\, he invites Abbas
to come along as his apprentice. But by the time Abbas travels to Europe\
, Tipu&rsquo\;s palace has been looted by British forces\, and the tiger a
utomaton has disappeared. To prove himself\, Abbas must retrieve the tiger
from an estate in the English countryside\, where it is displayed in a co
llection of plundered art.
About the author: TANIA JAMES is the author of the novels \;The Tusk That Did th e Damage \;and \;Atlas of Unknowns \;and the short story colle ction \;Aerogrammes. Her fiction has appeared in \;Boston Review\, Granta\, Guernica\, One Story\, A Public Space\, \;and \;The Keny on Review. She lives in Washington\, D.C.
\nAbout DC Reads:< /strong> DC Reads is a DC Pub lic Library program that promotes citywide conversations focused on a single book. Past titles have included How the Word is Passed by Clint Smi th\, Good Talk by Mira Jacob\, and Heads of the Colored People by Nafissa Thompson-Spires. We are delighted to expand the program to three titles th is year and focus on writers from right here in the DC community.
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