
Salman Rushdie
presents
The Golden House:
A Novel
in conversation with HOMI K. BHABHA
THIS EVENT IS SOLD OUT
There will not be a standby line for this event
This event includes a book signing
DateSep
8
Friday
September 8, 2017 6:30 PM ET (Doors at 6:00) |
LocationFirst Parish Church
1446 Massachusetts Ave., Cambridge, MA 02138 |
Tickets
SOLD OUT.
There will not be a standby line for this event. |
Harvard Book Store and the Mahindra Humanities Center welcome internationally renowned author SALMAN RUSHDIE for a discussion of his latest novel, The Golden House—a modern American epic that is equal parts The Great Gatsby and The Bonfire of the Vanities, set against the panorama of contemporary politics and culture. Mr. Rushdie will be joined in conversation by HOMI K. BHABHA, Director of the Mahindra Humanities Center at Harvard University.
About The Golden House
On the day of Barack Obama’s inauguration, an enigmatic billionaire from foreign shores takes up residence in the architectural jewel of “the Gardens,” a cloistered community in New York’s Greenwich Village. The neighborhood is a bubble within a bubble, and the residents are immediately intrigued by the eccentric newcomer and his family. Along with his improbable name, untraceable accent, and unmistakable whiff of danger, Nero Golden has brought along his three adult sons: agoraphobic, alcoholic Petya, a brilliant recluse with a tortured mind; Apu, the flamboyant artist, sexually and spiritually omnivorous, famous on twenty blocks; and D, at twenty-two the baby of the family, harboring an explosive secret even from himself. There is no mother, no wife; at least not until Vasilisa, a sleek Russian expat, snags the septuagenarian Nero, becoming the queen to his king—a queen in want of an heir.
Our guide to the Goldens’ world is their neighbor René, an ambitious young filmmaker. Researching a movie about the Goldens, he ingratiates himself into their household. Seduced by their mystique, he is inevitably implicated in their quarrels, their infidelities, and, indeed, their crimes. Meanwhile, like a bad joke, a certain comic-book villain embarks upon a crass presidential run that turns New York upside-down.
Set against the strange and exuberant backdrop of current American culture and politics, The Golden House also marks Salman Rushdie’s triumphant and exciting return to realism. The result is a modern epic of love and terrorism, loss and reinvention—a powerful, timely story told with the daring and panache that make Salman Rushdie a force of light in our dark new age.
Praise
"Rushdie returns with a topical, razor-sharp portrait of life among the very rich. . . . Where Tom Wolfe’s Bonfire of the Vanities sent up the go-go, me-me Reagan/Bush era, Rushdie’s latest novel captures the existential uncertainties of the anxious Obama years. . . . A sort of Great Gatsby for our time: everyone is implicated, no one is innocent, and no one comes out unscathed." —Kirkus, starred review
UPDATE: Tickets for this event are sold out. There will be not be a standby line for this event.
Tickets are non-refundable and non-returnable.
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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This evening's book signing is limited to Mr. Rushdie's latest book, The Golden House. Due to limited time, no posed photographs with the author.
The Mahindra Humanities Center is a crossroads for interdisciplinary discussions among Harvard faculty, faculty from other area institutions, graduate students, undergraduates, and the public. It sponsors lectures, panels, readings, conferences, workshops, and seminars on a wide range of topics. It also supports informal occasions for the exchange of ideas and the sharing of scholarly and artistic work. The Mahindra Center seeks to foster collaborations between the humanities, social sciences, and sciences in the belief that the humanities make a unique contribution in establishing -- through interpretation and conversation -- communities of interest and climates of opinion. Learn more at mahindrahumanities.fas.harvard.edu.

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