Crystal King and Tim Weed

Harvard Book Store welcomes GrubStreet teachers CRYSTAL KING and TIM WEED for a discussion of their books, Feast of Sorrow: A Novel of Ancient Rome and A Field Guide to Murder & Fly Fishing: Stories.

About Feast of Sorrow

Set amongst the scandal, wealth, and upstairs-downstairs politics of a Roman family, Crystal King’s seminal debut features the man who inspired the world’s oldest cookbook and the ambition that led to his destruction.

On a blistering day in the twenty-sixth year of Augustus Caesar’s reign, a young chef, Thrasius, is acquired for the exorbitant price of twenty thousand denarii. His purchaser is the infamous gourmet Marcus Gavius Apicius, wealthy beyond measure, obsessed with a taste for fine meals from exotic places, and a singular ambition: to serve as culinary advisor to Caesar, an honor that will cement his legacy as Rome's leading epicure.

Apicius rightfully believes that Thrasius is the key to his culinary success, and with Thrasius’s help he soon becomes known for his lavish parties and fantastic meals. Thrasius finds a family in Apicius’s household, his daughter Apicata, his wife Aelia, and her handmaiden, Passia whom Thrasius quickly falls in love with. But as Apicius draws closer to his ultimate goal, his reckless disregard for any who might get in his way takes a dangerous turn that threatens his young family and places his entire household at the mercy of the most powerful forces in Rome.

Praise for Feast of Sorrow

"Through the lens of a slave in ancient Rome, Crystal King illuminates a realm of seemingly impossible gluttony and excess, along with every other deadly sin. In the household of outrageous gourmand Apicius, he of extraordinarily decadent mores, one man, a slave, Thrasius, provides the sole ethical center. Feast of Sorrow is impossible to put down." —Randy Susan Meyers, bestselling author of Accidents of Marriage

"The historical world of Feast of Sorrow lives and breathes, and it is a delight to follow its characters’ struggle for happiness and survival amidst the simmering peril of Rome’s great houses. Even if you’re not a foodie drawn to novels of ancient Rome, this immersive, sensorily rich page-turner will take you for a delicious and unforgettable ride." —Tim Weed, author of Will Poole’s Island

About A Field Guide to Murder & Fly Fishing

A high mountain lake in the Colorado Rockies is the point of departure for these stories of dark adventure, in which vividly drawn landscapes provide an immersive setting for narratives about fishing guides, amateur sportsmen, teenage misfits, scientists, mountaineers, and expatriates embark on disquieting journeys of self-discovery in far-flung places: the hazardous tidal waters of Nantucket, the granite quarries and ski slopes of New Hampshire, Venezuela's Orinoco basin, the ancient squares and alleyways of Rome and Granada, the summit of an Andean volcano, and the tension-filled streets of eastern Cuba. 

Praise for A Field Guide to Murder & Fly Fishing

"In his first story collection, novelist Tim Weed shows his stunningly impressive range--transporting readers from the depths of the Amazon to the backstreets of Rome and Granada. Many of Weed's stories have a hint of the mysterious, even the supernatural, but they're all grounded in sharply rendered material worlds so fresh one feels one might step directly into the literary photographs he has created and stroll around for awhile. A top-notch debut, not to be missed." —Jacob Appel, author of Einstein's Beach House