STARFest presents Patrick deWitt

Enjoy bestselling author Patrick deWitt as he talks about his wish to write humorous yet beautifully constructed stories that compel his readers to turn the page. His unique narrative takes us once more on a smart, entertaining read in his new novel French Exit.

Patrick deWitt was born on Vancouver Island, and currently lives in Oregon. He is the author of four novels. His first, Ablutions: Notes for a Novel, was published in 2010 and was a New York Times Editor's Choice. His second novel, The Sisters Brothers, is set in the 1850s Californian Gold Rush and is a variation on a western. It was shortlisted for the 2011 Man Booker Prize for Fiction and the Scotiabank Giller Prize, and won the 2011 Rogers Writers' Trust Fiction Prize, the Stephen Leacock Medal for Humour and the Governor General's Award for English Language Fiction.

Undermajordomo Minor, described as a 'deadpan coming-of-age novel', is deWitt's third novel and was longlisted for the 2015 Scotiabank Giller Prize.

In his 2018 novel, French Exit, deWitt gives us a brilliant and darkly comic offering about a wealthy widow and her adult son who flee New York for Paris in the wake of scandal and financial disintegration. Brimming with pathos, French Exit is a one-of-a-kind 'tragedy of manners,' a send-up of high society, as well as a moving mother/son caper which only Patrick deWitt could conceive and execute.

Host Zach Polis is St. Albert’s first Poet Laureate. He was the recipient of the 2018 Mayor’s Celebration of the Arts award in the category of Emerging Artist.

Tickets $7 available from the Library's Customer Service Desk or by calling 780-459-1530. Tickets on sale July 9.

  Get all the details at www.STARFest.ca