Author Peter Rock will discuss and read from his book, “My Abandonment,” on Thursday, May 16, at 7:30 p.m. in the Austin Reading Room at Nicholson Library at Linfield College. The reading is a culmination of this year’s MacReads program.
In its ninth year, MacReads is a community-wide book reading and discussion that ends in a presentation by the author. Schools, book clubs and residents throughout Yamhill County are encouraged to participate. Books will be available for purchase and signing at the event, which is open to the public.
Inspired by a true story, “My Abandonment” is a tale of survival and hope, which illustrates the young narrator’s transformation. This novel is about a 13-year-old girl and her father who live in Forest Park, the enormous nature preserve in Portland. They inhabit an elaborate cave shelter, wash in a creek, store perishables, use a makeshift septic system, tend a garden and even form a library of sorts. They remain separate from society except for once a week when they go to the city to buy groceries and attend church. A small mistake allows a backcountry jogger to discover them, provoking an eerie and surreal flight.
Rock attended Deep Springs College, received his bachelor of arts in English from Yale University and then held a Wallace Stegner Fellowship at Stanford University. He has taught fiction at the University of Pennsylvania, Yale University, Deep Springs College and in the MFA program at San Francisco State University. He is a recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship and is professor of creative writing in the English department at Reed College.
MacReads uses a common book to create community conversations that cross lines of generation and acquaintance. It is sponsored by Friends of Nicholson Library, Friends of McMinnville Public Library, Third Street Books and the Linfield English Department.
For more information, contact Susan Barnes Whyte, director of Linfield Libraries, 503-883-2517.
