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Register 119 Seats Remaining
The best-selling author of "Leave the World Behind" talks about his new novel, money, morality and the proximity power with fellow novelist Alice Elliott Dark.
The event is free but registration is required. Doors open at 3:30 p.m. After the discussion, there will be a Q&A period and a book signing and sale with Watchung Booksellers.
Open Book / Open Mind is sponsored by Montclair Public Library Foundation, Watchung Booksellers, the New Jersey Council on Humanities, Anonymous, Dr. Alex and Doris Malaspina and our individual Underwriters. To support Open Book / Open Mind and other library programs, click here to donate.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Rumaan Alam is the author of the New York Times bestselling novel "Leave the World Behind," which was a finalist for the National Book Award and adapted into a major motion picture, as well as two other novels. His writing has appeared in The New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, The New Yorker, and elsewhere. He lives in Brooklyn.
ABOUT THE BOOK
"Brooke wants. She isn’t in need, but there are things she wants. A sense of purpose, for instance. She wants to make a difference in the world, to impress her mother along the way, to spend time with friends and secure her independence. Her job assisting an octogenarian billionaire in his quest to give away a vast fortune could help her achieve many of these goals. It may inspire new desires as well: proximity to wealth turns out to be nothing less than transformative. What is money, really, but a kind of belief?
Taut, unsettling, and alive to the seductive distortions of money, Entitlement is a riveting tale for our new gilded age, a story that confidently considers questions about need and worth, race and privilege, philanthropy and generosity, passion and obsession. It is a provocative, propulsive novel about the American imagination."—Penguin Random House
“Rumaan Alam is a rarity…Entitlement — a psychological thriller that subtly turns into a vicious exposé of affluent liberalism— also sneaks up on you, and wins you over.”—The New York Times
“A brilliant exploration of extreme wealth and how it bends the lives of those close to it… Alam keeps things crystal clear and speedway fast.”—The Boston Globe
ABOUT THE CONVERSATION PARTNER
Alice Elliott Dark is the author the novels "Fellowship Point" and "Think of England," as well as two collections of short stories, "In the Gloaming" and "Naked to the Waist." Her award-winning story “In the Gloaming” was made into two films and was chosen for inclusion in Best American Stories of the Century. Dark is a past recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship. She is an associate professor at Rutgers-Newark in the MFA program. Dark is a resident of Montclair and a member of the Open Book / Open Mind advisory Committee.
