Tonight at Queen Books!
Come to Queen Books in Toronto’s East End this evening to celebrate Martha Schabas’ new novel My Face in the Light. This authors’ talk will feature the author in conversation with writer Naben Ruthnum (A Hero of Our Time, Curry).
The authors
Martha Schabas is a Canadian novelist and dance critic. Her most recent novel My Face in the Light was published in April 2022 by Knopf Canada. Her first novel, Various Positions, was named a Book of the Year by The Globe and Mail, Quill & Quire and NOW Magazine, and was shortlisted for an Evergreen Fiction Award. She was The Globe and Mail’s dance critic from 2015 to 2020, where she also wrote about theatre and books. Her essays, arts criticism and short fiction have appeared in publications including The Walrus, Hazlitt and The New Quarterly.
Naben Ruthnum is the author of Curry: Eating, Reading, and Race and the novel A Hero of Our Time. As Nathan Ripley, he is the author of two thrillers, Find You In the Dark and Your Life is Mine. He also writes for film and television. He lives in Toronto.
The book: My Face in the Light by Marthas Schabas
NAMED A “MOST ANTICIPATED” BOOK BY THE CBC AND THE GLOBE AND MAIL
“My mother is an artist and I am a liar. Or, if I scratch the surface, my mother is a sick woman and I am an actress . . .”
Justine feels uneasy in her marriage, her theatre career and her relationship with her estranged mother, a famous painter. An intuitive and uncanny mimic, distinguished by a pronounced scar across her forehead (the result of a childhood accident), Justine has made acting the centre of her life since she was a teenager, but lately her outwardly charmed life in Toronto has begun to ring false. After a disastrous audition in London, England, a chance encounter with a stranger leads to an unorthodox business proposition that would allow Justine to abandon the world she knows indefinitely. As the complications and contradictions of leaving a life behind swell to the point of crisis, Justine must confront the collateral damage of a traumatic, long-repressed past.
In psychologically astute prose full of provocative insights, My Face in the Light is a piercing, poignant novel about truth in art and identity. It’s the story of a young woman owning up to the lies she’s fallen in love with, and figuring out if she can still recognize herself when she finally lets them go.
Read an excerpt of the book here.
Event details
Hosted by: Queen Books
Type of event: Authors’ talk/interview
Featured authors: Martha Schabas in conversation with Naben Ruthnum about Martha Schabus’ new book My Face in the Light, published by Knopf Canada (2022).
Date: Friday, July 15, 2022
Time: 6-8 pm EDT
Cost: free, no RSVP required
Location: 914 Queen Street East, Toronto, ON, M4M 1J5
Contact Details: Queen Books, www.queenbooks.ca, 416-778-5053, info@queenbooks.ca