An evening with Idra Novey
4 October @ 7:00 pm - 8:30 pm
Join us on Wednesday 4 October, 7pm when we welcome Idra Novey to West Kirby, to celebrate the publication of her latest novel, TAKE WHAT YOU NEED.
Idra will be reading from TAKE WHAT YOU NEED, before chatting to Marie-Anne McQuay, Director of Projects for Arts Heritage, answering questions from the audience and signing copies of the book.
About TAKE WHAT YOU NEED:
‘A major novel of contemporary America that urgently reminds us of the messiness and complexity of people, love and intimacy.’ – FINANCIAL TIMES
‘Novey explores the boundaries of familial relationships and the cathartic power of art with depth and sensitivity.’ – OBSERVER
‘Novey, an American translator and poet, as well as novelist, succeeds in exploring big-picture national strife through intimate family aggro while steering clear of triteness.’ – DAILY MAIL
‘A study of mystery, misunderstanding and how we never truly know the people we love.’ – DAZED
‘A delicate meditation on art [and] family.’ – THE NEW YORKER
This morning, I read that repeating the name of the deceased can quiet the mind when grieving for complicated people. My stepmother Jean was a complicated person.
TAKE WHAT YOU NEED traces the parallel lives of Jean and her beloved but estranged stepdaughter, Leah, who’s sought a clean break from her rural childhood. In Leah’s urban life with her young family, she’s revealed little about Jean, how much she misses her stepmother’s hard-won insights and joyful lack of inhibition.
But with Jean’s death, Leah must return to sort through what’s been left behind. What Leah discovers is staggering: Jean has filled her ramshackle house with giant sculptures she’s welded from scraps of the area’s industrial history.
Set in the Allegheny Mountains of Appalachia, TAKE WHAT YOU NEED explores the continuing mystery of the people we love most, zeroing in on the joys and difficulties of family with great verve and humour, and illuminating what can be built from what others have discarded.
About IDRA NOVEY:
Idra Novey is a writer and translator. She’s the author of Those Who Knew, a finalist for the 2019 Clark Fiction Prize, Indie Next Pick, and a New York Times Editors’ Choice and also Ways to Disappear, a finalist for the L.A. Times Book Prize for First Fiction. Her fiction and poetry have been translated into a dozen languages and she’s written for the New York Times, The Atlantic, and the Los Angeles Times. Her works as a translator include Clarice Lispector’s novel The Passion According to G.H. and a co-translation with Ahmad Nadalizadeh of Iranian poet Garous Abdolmalekian, Lean Against This Late Hour, a finalist for the PEN America Poetry in Translation Prize in 2021. In 2022, she received a Pushcart Prize for her story ‘The Glacier’. She teaches fiction at Princeton University.
This event is being held at The West Kirby Bookshop, 6 Grange Road, CH48 4HA.
Tickets are £5 and include drinks on arrival. Copies of TAKE WHAT YOU NEED will be available to purchase on the night. Tickets are non-refundable, and if you can’t make the event but would like a signed/dedicated copy of TAKE WHAT YOU NEED, please do get in touch, @westkirbybooks on Instagram & Twitter or by emailing hello@thewestkirbybookshop.com.
We look forward to seeing you there!