Renowned writer’s latest novel reimagines America
Chang-Rae Lee to speak in Brooklyn
Chang-rae Lee, the award-winning novelist of “Native Speaker” and “The Surrendered,” will appear in Brooklyn on Tuesday, Jan. 7 to read from his latest novel “On Such a Full Sea.” The event is part of the widely popular Brooklyn By The Book series, a collaboration between Park Slope’s Community Bookstore, Congregation Beth Elohim and the Brooklyn Public Library that has hosted such acclaimed authors as Malcolm Gladwell and Michael Chabon.
Lee will read from and discuss his book, which follows the story of Fan, a 16-year-old girl who journeys throughout a provocatively imagined future America. The author will appear in conversation with Laurie Muchnick, a writer, editor and president of the National Book Critics Circle.
While “On Such a Full Sea” flirts with the fantastical, the dystopian world Lee creates is eerily familiar. After extensive destruction in the world as we know it, societies are uprooted and America is colonized by the Chinese population. Class divisions strictly dictate life and urban neighborhoods are transformed into distinct labor colonies. Set in B-Mor (once known as Baltimore), Lee’s story traces Fan’s quest to find Reg, her love and the father of the baby she’s expecting. Fan’s search leads her beyond the safety of B-Mor, where she must navigate anarchic territories rife with crime. An imaginative vision of the future, “On Such a Full Sea” deftly explores the intersection of humanity and heroism.