D. T. Max at Harvard Book Store

Harvard Book Store welcomes D. T. Max—staff writer at The New Yorker and author of national bestseller Every Love Story Is a Ghost Story—for a discussion of his new book Finale: Late Conversations with Stephen Sondheim. He will be joined in conversation by CHRISTOPHER EHLERS—Treasurer of the Boston Theater Critics Association and the Associate Arts Editor for DigBoston.

A Return to In-Person Events

Harvard Book Store is excited to be back to in-person programming. To ensure the safety and comfort of everyone in attendance, the following Covid-19 safety protocols will be in place at all of our Harvard Book Store events until further notice:

• Face coverings are required of all staff and attendees when inside the store. Masks must snugly cover nose and mouth.

About Finale

In 2017, New Yorker staff writer D.T. Max began working on a major profile of Stephen Sondheim that would be timed to the eventual premiere of a new musical Sondheim was writing. Sadly , that process – and the years of conversation – was cut short by Sondheim’s own hesitations, then the global pandemic, and finally by the great artist’s death in November 2021.

Now, Max has taken the raw version of these conversations and knit them together into an unforgettable work of literature and celebration. Finale reveals Sondheim—a star who disliked the spotlight—at his most relaxed, thoughtful, sardonic, and engaging, as he talks about work, music, movies, family, New York City, aging, the creative process, and much more.

Max brings you into the room and gives you a front row seat for their unusual and intimate three-year-long “pas de deux.” The two bond, spar, separate, and reunite, as Max elicits from Sondheim a candor and vulnerability he seldom displayed in public.

This is a unique portrait of an artist in his twilight, offering remarkable insight into the mind and heart of a genius whose work changed American musical theater and popular culture forever.

Praise for Finale

"Max paints a nuanced and sympathetic portrait of a notoriously private figure, enhanced with his own astute and earnest perspective . . . . Sondheim’s fans shouldn’t miss this." —Publishers Weekly