Join us for a reading with author Tania James, who will read from her new novel, Loot. A conversation with author Anna Beecher will follow. This in-person event will be cosponsored by the Alliance Française of Charlottesville and will be free and open to the public. We recommend arriving early for the best seating.
About the Book: Abbas is just seventeen years old when his gifts as a woodcarver come to the attention of Tipu Sultan, and he is drawn into service at the palace in order to build a giant tiger automaton for Tipu’s sons, a gift to commemorate their return from British captivity. His fate—and the fate of the wooden tiger he helps create—will mirror the vicissitudes of nations and dynasties ravaged by war across India and Europe.
Working alongside the legendary French clockmaker Lucien du Leze, Abbas hones his craft, learns French, and meets Jehanne, the daughter of a French expatriate. When du Leze is finally permitted to return home to Rouen, he invites Abbas to come along as his apprentice. But by the time Abbas travels to Europe, Tipu’s palace has been looted by British forces, and the tiger automaton has disappeared. To prove himself, Abbas must retrieve the tiger from an estate in the English countryside, where it is displayed in a collection of plundered art.
About the Author: Tania James is the author of the novels The Tusk That Did the Damage and Atlas of Unknowns and the short story collection Aerogrammes. Her fiction has appeared in Boston Review, Granta, Guernica, One Story, A Public Space, and The Kenyon Review. She lives in Washington, DC.
About the Moderator: Anna Beecher is a writer and theater-maker from the United Kingdom. Here Comes the Miracle, her first novel, was published in 2021 and was shortlisted for the Charlotte Aitken Trust Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year Award. She is currently working on a memoir titled We All Come Home Alive. Anna’s writing for performance spans storytelling, plays, and immersive experiences, and has been presented at venues including Lincoln Center, Glastonbury Festival, and Barbican London. She is assistant professor of creative writing at the University of Virginia.
Loot will be released on June 13. To order the book, please see below for the New Dominion Bookshop book order form or call the shop at 434-295-2552.
"Loot held me spellbound from the first page. This is an expertly-plotted, deeply affecting novel about war, displacement, emigration, and an elusive mechanical tiger."
—Maggie O’Farrell
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Tania James Photo Credit: Elliott O’Donovan