Sunday Afternoon at The Chapel with T.C. BOYLE in Conversation with JOHN McMURTRIE

 

Books Inc. proudly presents Sunday Afternoon at The Chapel with PEN/Faulkner Prize-Winner and New York Times-bestselling author T.C. Boyle for a discussion of his latest novel The Harder They Come.

Set in contemporary Northern California, The Harder They Come explores the volatile connections between three damaged people--an aging ex-Marine and Vietnam veteran, his psychologically unstable son, and the son's paranoid, much older lover--as they careen towards an explosive confrontation.

On a vacation cruise to Central America with his wife, seventy-year-old Sten Stensen unflinchingly kills a gun-wielding robber menacing a busload of senior tourists. The reluctant hero is relieved to return home to Fort Bragg, California, after the ordeal--only to find that his delusional son, Adam, has spiraled out of control.

Adam has become involved with Sara Hovarty Jennings, a hardened member of the Sovereign Citizens' Movement, right-wing anarchists who refuse to acknowledge the laws and regulations of the state, considering them to be false and non-applicable. Adam's senior by some fifteen years, Sara becomes his protector and inamorata. As Adam's mental state fractures, he becomes increasingly schizophrenic--a breakdown that leads him to shoot two people in separate instances. On the run, he takes to the woods, spurring the biggest manhunt in California history.

As he explores a father's legacy of violence and his powerlessness in relating to his equally violent son, T. C. Boyle offers unparalleled psychological insights into the American psyche. Inspired by a true story, The Harder They Come is a devastating and indelible novel from a modern master.

T.C. Boyle will be in conversation with John McMurtrie.

About John McMurtrie: John McMurtrie is the book editor of The San Francisco Chronicle. His writing has appeared in the Boston Globe, the Washington Post, the Toronto Globe and Mail, and the International Herald Tribune, where he got his start in journalism 25 years ago  not including a stint as a paperboy for the Boston Globe.

Event date: 
Sunday, April 12, 2015 - 2:00pm
Event address: 
The Chapel
777 Valencia Street
San Francisco, CA
Books: 
The Harder They Come: A Novel By T.C. Boyle Cover Image
$27.99
Unavailable, Out of Stock, or Out of Print
ISBN: 9780062349378
Published: Ecco - March 31st, 2015