On Dec. 2, Chaucer’s Books will host a virtual discussion at 7 pm with author Natashia Deon. Ms. Deon is an NAACP Image Award Nominee and a Pamela Krasney Moral Courage Fellow, as well as a practicing criminal attorney and a college professor.
Ms. Deon’s debut book Grace was named a New York Times ‘Best Book.’ Ms. Deón has been awarded fellowships by PEN America, Prague Summer Program for Writers, Dickinson House in Belgium, the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference and the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts.
Her new book The Perishing is the story of a black immortal in the 1930s who must recover the memory of her past in order to discover who she truly is. Lou, a young black woman in the 1930s, wakes up in an alley with no memory of how she got there or where she is from. Lou goes on to become the first female black journalist at the LA Times. When Lou meets a firefighter at a downtown boxing gym, she realizes that while having no memory of meeting him, she has been drawing his face for years. Lou begins to believe she may be an immortal sent here for a very important reason, one that only others like her can explain. Setting out to investigate the mystery of her existence, Lou must make sense of the jumble of lifetimes calling to her, just as new forces threaten the existence of those around her.
This novel is woven into the historical tapestry of Los Angeles, prohibition, the creation of Route 66, and the collapse of the St. Francis Dam. This novel examines love and justice through the eyes of a woman whose fate seems linked to the city that she calls home.
To attend this online event, go to https://us06web.zoom.us/j/89957126471. To watch it on YouTube, go to https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCRVxV4ZOqkmnBj8TvT25NFQ.
- Katherine Zehnder
