Books in the Brewery - Maylands - May: Elegy, Southwest by Madeleine Watts
Books in the Brewery is a free casual book club. In May we discuss Elegy, Southwest by Madeleine Watts
Date and time
Location
The Seasonal Brewing Co.
175 Guildford Road Maylands, WA 6051 AustraliaAbout this event
- Event lasts 1 hour 30 minutes
Book of the Month: Elegy, Southwest by Madeleine Watts
Books in the Brewery is a free casual event combining great beer with good chat and an Aussie novel. Readers and drinkers are invited to take part in a guided conversation with our resident host.
Maylands meetings will be held at 6pm on the second Monday of the month.
Adult readers of all experience are invited to think and talk about books in a safe and encouraging space. Expect to be discussing books from both award-winning Australian authors and new voices from around the country.
About the book: Elegy, Southwest is a stunning and tragic story about love, death and everything in between.’ – Victoria Hannan, author of Kokomo
In November 2018 Eloise and Lewis rent a car in Las Vegas and take off on a two-week road trip across the American southwest. While wildfires rage, the married couple make their way through Nevada, California, Arizona, and Utah, tracing the course of the Colorado River, the aquatic artery on which the Southwest depends for survival. Lewis, an artist working for a prominent land art foundation, is grieving the recent death of his mother, while Eloise is an academic researching the past and future of the Colorado River as it threatens to run dry.
Over the course of their trip, Eloise, beginning to suspect she might be pregnant, helplessly witnesses Lewis’s descent as he struggles to find a place for himself in the desert where he never quite felt at home.
Elegy, Southwest is a novel which entwines a tragic love story with an intelligent and profound consideration of the way we now live alongside environmental breakdown; an elegy for lost love and for the landscape that makes us.
‘Madeline Watts is an uncommonly perceptive and daring writer. Her sensitivity to the grief of this specific territory, the desert Southwest, and its people is a profound gift.’ – Claire Vaye Watkins, author of I Love You But I’ve Chosen Darkness
‘Haunting and hypnotic, absorbing and provocative, Elegy, Southwest is the novel I’ve been waiting for. Watts’ cool, precise prose calls to mind Joan Didion and Alexandra Kleeman, but this singular novel is something new, entirely. New and breathtaking.’ – Joanna Rakoff, author of My Salinger Year
Frequently asked questions
With great power comes great responsibility. We look for a variety of Australian literary fiction published in the last 18 months, probably not from the usual suspects. Must also be available as an audiobook and should be stocked by public libraries in WA.
No. Whilst it’s always great for authors when somebody buys their book, Books in the Brewery encourages you to access the book in any way that suits. Why not get it via Audible, go to your local library, borrow it from your gran, steal it from somebody on the train. OK please don’t steal it.
Every book club can be unique, at Books in the Brewery our host will be on hand to greet you and guide you through the discussion with other attendees. Everyone is encouraged to participate to their own comfort level and nobody is forced to answer any question.
Please do! Some people even feel less inhibited when they don’t know anyone else. Books in the Brewery is a safe and welcoming space for everyone.
This is a free community event. Whilst our venue partners are businesses attendees are under no obligation to buy anything during Books in the Brewery.
Not at all. The venue has alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages to suit all tastes.
98% yes. We really do talk about the book. This includes spoilers. So in order to get the most out of the evening we would love you to have finished as much of the book as possible but even if you abandoned half way come and tell us why you felt that way.
Simples. Park in the Ellard Lane car park when visiting Seasonal Brewing Co and give the friendly staff behind the bar your rego number.
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Books in the Brewery is designed to be a free welcoming, fun and casual community book club for adult readers of all levels of experience.