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Author, director John Sayles
If you only read one book this summer,
make it A Moment in the Sun.”
— NPR’S MORNING EDITION
John Sayles an Oscar-nominated writer-director of 17 films including
"Lone Star," and a National Book Award nominee for the 1977 novel "Union
Dues," has created a vast new novel. At nearly 1,000 pages, A Moment in
the Sun that captures America on the brink of the 20th century--
spanning from 1897 with the Yukon gold rush to 1903 and the end of the
American Philippine-American War with rich historical details and
unforgettable characters.
“Sayles is a master of both architecture and affect…devoted to offering
us a new understanding of the past.”
— TOM LECLAIR
NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW
Spanning five years and half a dozen countries, A Moment in the Sun
takes the whole era in its sights—from the white-racist coup in
Wilmington, North Carolina, to the first stirrings of the motion-picture
industry, to the bloody dawn of U.S. interventionism in Cuba and the
Philippines. The result of years of writing and research, the book is
built on the voices of a breathtaking range of men and women—Hod
Brackenridge, a gold-chaser turned Army recruit; Royal Scott, an African
American infantryman whose life outside
the military has been destroyed; Diosdado Concepcíon, a Filipino
insurgent preparing to fight against his country’s new colonizers; and
more than a dozen others, Mark Twain, Damon Runyon, and President
William McKinley’s assassin among them. Shot through with a lyrical
intensity and stunning detail that recall Doctorow and Deadwood both,
this is a story as big as its subject: history rediscovered through the
lives of the people who made it happen.
July 13, 7:00 pm
Duxbury Free Library – Merry Room