What's On at the Library

Tuesday, March 23. The eh List Author Series hosts some amazing authors. They always have great books. But they don't always live lives which match the excitement and drama of their novels. But Toronto's own David Rotenberg has that sort of 'right stuff'. The author of half a dozen best-selling mystery novels may be best known not for his substantial writing career, but as a director of Broadway shows, television and professional theatre around the globe.

Rotenberg's most recent novel, Shanghai, is a gigantic, multi-generational epic, set in the city where Rotenberg himself spent a lot of time directing in the theatre, teaching, and writing. Shanghai may be the longest novel published in English in the last hundred years, weighing in at something like eight hundred thousand words. And when the author read for the audience, he couldn't find any of them to read to us: he read a favourite scene which had been edited out of the final version!

The audience of 40 (a full house at Runnymede) were keen to ask questions about what other mystery writers he enjoyed reading, how long it took to write a novel of nearly a million words, and what he was currently working on. In answer to this last question, he read from his current project, a book about a synesthete named David, who lives in Toronto’s Junction neighbourhood. Sound intriguing? You will just have to wait for the book to appear in Simon and Schuster's catalogue… or come out to hear Rotenberg at the Barbara Frum branch on May 18th at 7 pm, when he is back for a second appearance under The eh List banner.

In the coming days, watch The eh List for Annabel Lyon at S.Walter Stewart  (March 24 @ 7) and TRL (March 25 @ 12:30) and newcomer Lauren Kirshner at Barbara Frum on March 25th @ 7.