Join Jess Walter for a LIVE virtual event to discuss the B&N November Book Club selection, “THE COLD MILLIONS.”
BOOK DISCUSSION DETAILS
[In Conversation with Richard Russo]
Tuesday December 01, 2020 7:00 PM EST
Barnes & Noble
Joining Link: https://www.facebook.com/barnesandnoble/
About the Author:
Jess Walter is the author of six novels, including the #1 New York Times bestseller Beautiful Ruins, which was described by NPR’s Maureen Corrigan as a “literary miracle”; the National Book Award finalist The Zero; and Citizen Vince, the winner of the Edgar Award for best novel. His short fiction has appeared in a number of magazines as well as The Best American Short Stories and The Best American Nonrequired Reading.
About the Book:
This Barnes & Noble Exclusive Edition will contain an original essay written by the author and a reading group discussion guide.
The author of the #1 New York Times bestseller Beautiful Ruins delivers another “literary miracle” (NPR)—a propulsive, richly entertaining novel about two brothers swept up in the turbulent class warfare of the early twentieth century.
The Dolans live by their wits, jumping freight trains and lining up for day work at crooked job agencies. While sixteen-year-old Rye yearns for a steady job and a home, his older brother, Gig, dreams of a better world, fighting alongside other union men for fair pay and decent treatment. Enter Ursula the Great, a vaudeville singer who performs with a live cougar and introduces the brothers to a far more dangerous creature: a mining magnate determined to keep his wealth and his hold on Ursula.
Dubious of Gig’s idealism, Rye finds himself drawn to a fearless nineteen-year-old activist and feminist named Elizabeth Gurley Flynn. But a storm is coming, threatening to overwhelm them all, and Rye will be forced to decide where he stands. Is it enough to win the occasional battle, even if you cannot win the war?
An intimate story of brotherhood, love, sacrifice, and betrayal set against the panoramic backdrop of an early twentieth-century America that eerily echoes our own time, The Cold Millions offers a kaleidoscopic portrait of a nation grappling with the chasm between rich and poor, between harsh realities and simple dreams. Featuring an unforgettable cast of cops and tramps, suffragists and socialists, madams and murderers, it is a tour de force from a “writer who has planted himself firmly in the first rank of American authors” (Boston Globe).
