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Stewart O'Nan

May 28, 2019 - May 28, 2019 | 7:00 pm - 8:30 pm
City of Asylum
40 W. North Avenue
Pittsburgh, PA 15212

Stewart O’Nan is renowned for illuminating the unexpected grace of everyday life and the resilience of ordinary people with humor, intelligence, and compassion. In Henry, Himself–a prequel to the beloved Emily, Alone-he offers an unsentimental, moving life story of a twentieth-century everyman.

Soldier, son, lover, husband, breadwinner, churchgoer, Henry Maxwell has spent his whole life trying to live with honor. A native Pittsburgher and engineer, he’s always believed in logic, sacrifice, and hard work. Now, seventy-five and retired, he feels the world has passed him by. It’s 1998, the American century is ending, and nothing is simple anymore. His children are distant, their unhappiness a mystery. Only his wife Emily and dog Rufus stand by him. Once so confident, as Henry’s strength and memory desert him, he weighs his dreams against his regrets and is left with questions he can’t answer: Is he a good man? Has he done right by the people he loves? And with time running out, what, realistically, can he hope for?

Like Emily, Alone, Henry, Himself is a wry, warmhearted portrait of an American original who believes he’s reached a dead end only to discover life is full of surprises.

Stewart O’Nan is the author of sixteen previous novels, including City of SecretsWest of Sunset; The OddsEmily, AloneSongs for the MissingWish You Were HereA Prayer for the Dying; and Snow Angels. His novel Last Night at the Lobster was a national bestseller and a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize. He was born, raised, and lives in Pittsburgh.

Moderated by:

Tom Sweterlitsch is the author of the novels The Gone World and Tomorrow and Tomorrowand has worked as a screenwriter for director Neill Blomkamp’s Oats Studios.  He lives in Pittsburgh with his wife and daughter.

Penguin Random House
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Penguin Random House is the international home to nearly 250 editorially and creatively independent publishing imprints. Together, our mission is to foster a universal passion for reading by partnering with authors to help create stories and communicate ideas that inform, entertain, and inspire, and to connect them with readers everywhere.

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