Jeffrey Eugenides

discusses

Fresh Complaint:
Stories

This event includes a book signing

Date

Oct
6
Friday
October 6, 2017
7:00 PM ET
(Doors at 6:30)

Location

First Parish Church
1446 Massachusetts Ave., Cambridge, MA 02138

Tickets

$28.00 (online only, book included) $5.00

Harvard Book Store welcomes internationally acclaimed and Pulitzer Prize–winning author JEFFREY EUGENIDES—author of the novels The Virgin Suicides, Middlesex, and The Marriage Plot—reading from a new short story collection, Fresh Complaint.

About Fresh Complaint: Stories

Jeffrey Eugenides’s bestselling novels have shown him to be an astute observer of the crises of adolescence, self-discovery, family love, and what it means to be American in our times. The stories in Fresh Complaint explore equally rich­­––­­and intriguing­­––territory. Ranging from the bitingly reproductive antics of “Baster” to the dreamy, moving account of a young traveler’s search for enlightenment in “Air Mail” (selected by Annie Proulx for Best American Short Stories), this collection presents characters in the midst of personal and national emergencies. We meet a failed poet who, envious of other people’s wealth during the real-estate bubble, becomes an embezzler; a clavichordist whose dreams of art founder under the obligations of marriage and fatherhood; and, in “Fresh Complaint,” a high school student whose wish to escape the strictures of her immigrant family lead her to a drastic decision that upends the life of a middle-aged British physicist. Narratively compelling, beautifully written, and packed with a density of ideas despite their fluid grace, these stories chart the development and maturation of a major American writer.

Praise

"[The] absorbing fiction in Fresh Complaint renders us—like the 88-year-old dementia sufferer comforted by the vaguely familiar Inuit tale in the opening story—freshly grateful for what literature can do: 'the self-forgetfulness, the diving and plunging into other lives.'" —Heller McAlpin, NPR Books

Jeffrey Eugenides
Jeffrey Eugenides

Jeffrey Eugenides

Jeffrey Eugenides was born in Detroit and attended Brown and Stanford Universities. His first novel, The Virgin Suicides, was published by FSG to great acclaim in 1993, and he has received numerous awards for his work. In 2003, he received the Pulitzer Prize for his novel Middlesex (FSG, 2002), which was also a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award, the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award, and France’s Prix Médicis. The Marriage Plot (FSG, 2011) was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award, and won both the Prix Fitzgerald and the Madame Figaro Literary Prize. Eugenides is a professor of creative writing in the Lewis Center for the Arts at Princeton.

Photo credit: Gasper Tringale

All pre-sales tickets include a copy of Fresh Complaint: Stories, admission into the event, and a $5 coupon for use in the bookstore. Pre-sales tickets (online only) are available for two weeks, after which a $5 ticket option will also go on sale. Books bundled with pre-sale tickets may only be picked up at the venue the night of the event, and cannot be picked up in-store beforehand.

$5 tickets will also be available at Harvard Book Store and over the phone at 617-661-1515. Unless the event is sold out, any remaining tickets will be on sale at the door of the venue when doors open.

Tickets are non-refundable and non-returnable.

First Parish Church
1446 Massachusetts Ave., Cambridge, MA 02138

Walking from the Harvard Square T station: 2 minutes

As you exit the station, cross Mass. Ave. and look for the newsstand called Crimson Corner. Turn right and proceed north along Mass. Ave. going toward the Cambridge Common. You will pass the Harvard Coop, Bank of America, and CVS. The First Parish Church is located at the corner of Mass. Ave. and Church St. Please enter through the front door of the church.

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While we can't guarantee fulfillment of a signed book pre-order, our authors are almost always able to sign extra books to fulfill such orders.

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Event Series: This Month's Selection for our Signed First Edition Club

Signed First Edition ClubHarvard Book Store's Signed First Edition Club is a unique way for readers to connect with and create a wealth of great books. Each month, Harvard Book Store offers members a signed first edition of a newly published book, selected for both its literary merit and potential collectibility. Learn more and sign up at harvard.com/signedfirst.

Signing Guidelines

In addition to signing copies of Fresh Complaint, the author will sign up to three (3) backlist books per person.

Purchase the Book
Featured event books will be for sale at the event for 20% off. Thank you for supporting this author series with your purchases.
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