Date/Time
Tuesday, March 20, 2018
5:30 PM - 7:00 PM
Location
Lyman Allyn Art Museum
Categories
Free admissionLyman Allyn Art Museum and Bank Square Books present an author talk and book signing with Rachel Lyon, the author of Self-Portrait with Boy. At the event, Rachel will read from her book and we will discuss ethics in art and her writing process.
Please RSVP to 860.443.2545 x2129 or email us.
About the Book
A compulsively readable and electrifying debut about an ambitious young female artist who accidentally photographs a boy falling to his death–an image that could jumpstart her career, but would also devastate her most intimate friendship.
Lu Rile is a relentlessly focused young photographer struggling to make ends meet. Working three jobs, responsible for her aging father, and worrying that the crumbling warehouse she lives in is being sold to developers, she is at a point of desperation. One day, in the background of a self-portrait, Lu accidentally captures on film a boy falling past her window to his death. The photograph turns out to be startlingly gorgeous, the best work of art she’s ever made. It’s an image that could change her life…if she lets it.
But the decision to show the photograph is not easy. The boy is her neighbors’ son, and the tragedy brings all the building’s residents together. It especially unites Lu with his beautiful grieving mother, Kate. As the two forge an intense bond based on sympathy, loneliness, and budding attraction, Lu feels increasingly unsettled and guilty, torn between equally fierce desires: to use the photograph to advance her career, and to protect a woman she has come to love.
Set in early 90s Brooklyn on the brink of gentrification, Self-Portrait with Boy is a provocative commentary about the emotional dues that must be paid on the road to success, a powerful exploration of the complex terrain of female friendship, and a brilliant debut from novelist Rachel Lyon.
About the Author
RACHEL LYON is the author of the novel SELF PORTRAIT WITH BOY. She teaches for the Sackett Street Writers Workshop, Catapult, Slice, and elsewhere, and offers private writing coaching. Most weeks she sends out a free writing/thinking prompts newsletter. She is a cofounder of the monthly reading series Ditmas Lit.