This virtual event is a part of the 2021 Virginia Festival of the Book. Please see below for more information about how to register and to purchase books.
Ayad Akhtar (Homeland Elegies) will discuss his latest novel, a deeply personal work about identity and belonging in a nation coming apart at the seams. Homeland Elegies blends fact and fiction to tell an epic story of longing and dispossession in the world that 9/11 made. Part family drama, part social essay, and part picaresque novel, it is at its heart the story of a father, a son, and the country they both call home.
Ayad Akhtar forges a new narrative voice to paint the portrait of a country in which debt has ruined countless lives and the gods of finance rule, where immigrants live in fear, and where the nation’s unhealed wounds wreak havoc around the world. Akhtar attempts to make sense of it all through the lens of a story about one family, from a heartland town in America to palatial suites in Central Europe to guerrilla lookouts in the mountains of Afghanistan, and spares no one—least of all himself—in the process.
As part of the all-virtual 2021 Virginia Festival of the Book, this event is free to attend and open to the public. To attend, please register here or simply make plans to watch on Facebook.com/VaBookFest.
Order the Book from New Dominion Bookshop
Shop local and support your community bookstore! Order your books for the 2021 Virginia Festival of the Book by filling out the contact form below. We will give you a call when your order is ready, and you will be able to pay for your order over the phone at that time. We are currently offering curbside pickup, local delivery (available for free within 5 miles of the shop), and shipping (normal rates apply). We are also open for limited browsing.