An Evening with
T.C. Boyle
March 3, 2011, 8pm
Track 16 Gallery, Bergamot Station
2525 Michigan Avenue, Bldg C-1
Santa Monica, CA 90404
T.C. Boyle is the author of twelve novels including most recently, The Women, a New York Times bestseller, and nine collections of short stories. A member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters, he lives near Santa Barbara, CA and is Distinguished Professor of English at the University of Southern California. Visit his website for more on T.C. Boyle.
California’s Channel Islands, five of which are set off the coast near Santa Barbara, have been called the Galapagos of North America because their very isolation has helped preserve 145 species of plants and animals that are completely unique. In visionary novelist T.C. Boyle’s upcoming novel When the Killing’s Done the islands become the setting for a dramatic showdown between two factions of environmentalists, each utterly convinced of their beliefs in preserving the islands and the natural world.
In his new novel, T.C. Boyle showcases his talents for combining action-packed adventure with a socially conscious tale that gives no easy answers. Echoing back to his bestselling 1995 novel The Tortilla Curtain, When the Killing’s Done poses two sets of characters against each other—neither of whom can simply be dismissed as the “villain.” On the one side is Alma Boyd Takesue, a National Park Service biologist who is spearheading her team’s effort to save the island’s endangered native creatures from invasive species like rats and feral pigs by calling in hunters to eliminate them. On the other side is David La Joy, a dreadlocked BMW-driving local businessman, and his lover, the folksinger Anise Reed, who are fiercely opposed to killing any species whatsoever and will go to any lengths to subvert the plans of Alma and her colleagues.
Into this set up, Boyle injects as much drama and gripping adventure as he’s ever done before in a novel, while at the same time never losing sight of the important questions being raised about humankind’s attempts at dominion over nature and, ultimately, our place in the wild. When the Killing’s Done is also a deeply humane novel, with fully evolved characters whose stories are enriched with family histories focusing in particular on mother-daughter relationships and each woman’s strong connection to the California coast and the Channel Islands in particular. When the Killing’s Done offers no easy answers to the complicated questions that Boyle poses, including the right of possession of the land, the waters and the very lives of all the creatures sharing this planet with us, but it will move you deeply and ultimately put you in the position to decide.
Tickets:
$20 General Admission
$35 General Admission including T.C. Boyle’s new book, When the Killing’s Done
$95 Reserved Seating, T.C. Boyle book and reception before event, 6:30-7:30pm
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