An Evening with Hernan Diaz and Mark Haber

Authors Hernan Diaz, a finalist for the 2018 Pulitzer Prize, will be in conversation with Mark Haber about their books, IN THE DISTANCE and REINHARDT’S GARDEN. Two novels that reimagine histories in both the Americas and Europe. IN THE DISTANCE (one of Brazos bestselling fiction books) is a moving and incredibly orginal take on the American ‘western’, a contemporary classic. REINHARDT’S GARDEN, a dark and absurb novel about obsession, goes back and forth between early 20th century South America and Europe.

This conversation will be moderated by Taylor Davis-Van Atta. 

IN THE DISTANCE: A young Swedish immigrant finds himself penniless and alone in California. The boy travels East in search of his brother, moving on foot against the great current of emigrants pushing West. Driven back again and again, he meets naturalists, criminals, religious fanatics, swindlers, Indians, and lawmen, and his exploits turn him into a legend. Diaz defies the conventions of historical fiction and genre, offering a probing look at the stereotypes that populate our past and a portrait of radical foreignness.

REINHARDT’S GARDEN: At the turn of the twentieth century, as he composes a treatise on melancholy, Jacov Reinhardt sets off from his small Croatian village in search of his hero and unwitting mentor, Emiliano Gomez Carrasquilla, who is rumored to have disappeared into the South American jungle—“not lost, mind you, but retired.” Jacov’s narcissistic preoccupation with melancholy consumes him, and as he desperately recounts the myth of his journey to his trusted but ailing scribe, hope for an encounter with the lost philosopher who holds the key to Jacov’s obsession seems increasingly unlikely.