Skylight Books Podcast Series

ANDERS NILSEN reads from RAGE OF POSEIDON and MICHAEL DEFORGE reads from ANT COLONY

Rage of Poseidon (Drawn & Quarterly) + Ant Colony (Drawn + Quarterly)

Anders Nilsen & Michael DeForge join forces for a can't-miss reading and presentation.

Imagine you are Poseidon at the dawn of the twenty-first century. The oceans are dying and sailors have long since stopped paying tribute. They just don’t need you anymore. What do you do? Perhaps, seeking answers, you go exploring. Maybe you end up in Wisconsin and discover the pleasures of the iced latte. And then, perhaps, everything goes wrong.

Anders Nilsen, the author of Big Questions and Don’t Go Where I Can’t Follow, explores questions like these in his newest work, a darkly funny meditation on religion and faith with a modern twist. Rage of Poseidon brings all the philosophical depth of Nilsen’s earlier work to bear on contemporary society, asking how a twenty-first-century child might respond to being sacrificed on a mountaintop, and probing the role gods like Venus and Bacchus might have in the world of today. Nilsen works in aunique style for these short stories, distilling individual moments in black silhouette on a spare white background. Above all, though, he immerses us seamlessly in a world where gods and humans are more alike than not, forcing us to recognize the humor in our (and their) desperation.

In the few short years since he began his pamphlet-size comic book series Lose, Michael DeForge has announced himself as an important new voice in alternative comics. His brash, confident, undulating artwork sent a shock wave through the comics world for its unique, fully formed aesthetic.

From its opening pages, Ant Colony immerses the reader in a world that is darkly existential, with false prophets, unjust wars, and corrupt police officers, as it follows the denizens of a black ant colony under attack from the nearby red ants. On the surface, it's the story of this war, the destruction of a civilization, and the ants' all too familiar desire to rebuild. Underneath, though, Ant Colony plumbs the deepest human concerns--loneliness, faith, love, apathy, and more. All of this is done with humor and sensitivity, exposing a world where spiders can wreak unimaginable amounts of havoc with a single gnash of their jaws. Michael DeForge's striking visual sensibility--stark lines, dramatic color choices, and brilliant use of page and panel space--stands out in this volume.

Anders Nilsen is an award-winning cartoonist and visual artist. He is the author of several books, including Don't Go Where I Can't Follow and the magnum opus Big Questions, for which he was awarded the 2012 Lynd Ward Graphic Novel Prize by the Pennsylvania Center for the Book and the Ignatz Award, and was nominated for the top prize at the Angouleme International Comics Festival. Nilsen's works have been translated into a number of languages, and he has exhibited his drawing and painting internationally. He lives and works in Minneapolis.

Michael DeForge was born in 1987 and grew up in Ottawa, Ontario. After a few years of experimenting with short strips and zines, he created Lose #1, his first full-length comic, which won Best Emerging Talent at the Doug Wright Awards. He has since published a handful of comic books, which have received industry praise and two Eisner Award nominations. His illustrations have been published in The New York Times and Bloomberg View; his comics have appeared in Believer, Maisonneuve, and the Adventure Time comic book series.

ANDREA PORTES reads from BURY THIS

Bury This (Soft Skull Press)

If twenty-five years can discover the internet, the cell phone, this thing called the iPod, can twenty-five years discover the secret of a girl murdered, abandoned, by the side of the road? That is the haunting premise of Bury This, an impressionistic literary thriller about the murder of a young girl in small-town Michigan in 1979.

Beth Krause was by all intents a good little girl - member of the church choir, beloved daughter of doting parents, friend to the downtrodden. But dig a little deeper into any small town, and conflicts and jealousies begin to appear. And somewhere is that heady mix lies the answer to what really happened to Beth Krause. Her unsolved murder becomes the stuff of town legend, and twenty-five years later the case is re-ignited when a group of film students start making a documentary on Beth's fateful life. The town has never fully healed over the loss of Beth, and the new investigation calls into light several key characters: her father, a WWII vet; her mother, once the toast of Manhattan; her best friend, abandoned by her mother and left to fend for herself against an abusive father; and the detective, just a rookie when the case broke, haunted by his inability to bring Beth's murderer to justice. All of these passions will collide once the identity of Beth's murderer is revealed, proving once again that some secrets can never stay buried.

Adrea Portes was born in rural Nebraska, and spent her early years living in Illinois, Texas, North Dakota, North Carolina, Rio de Janiero, and Brasilia. Portes attended Bryn Mawr and received her MFA from UC San Diego. She is the author of the semi-autobiographical novelHick, and has also completed the comic book series Super Rad, which will be released in September 2013 by Dark Matter.

WILLIAM S. BURROUGHS 100th BIRTHDAY CELEBRATION

Join us for a celebration of William Burroughs' life and work together with the cast and creators of Jon Bastian's Bill & Joan, a haunting new drama inspired by the conflicting accounts of what truly happened in 1951 when William S. Burroughs shot his wife Joan.

1951. Mexico City. Writer William S. Burroughs awakes to find himself in jail,
being questioned about the shooting of his wife Joan Vollmer. Their drunken game of “William Tell” went horribly wrong, and now the Mexican detectives are probing Burroughs’ heroin-hazed, tortured mind for the truth.

Filled with Burroughs’ hallmark vulgarity, voracious wit and provocative characters,
Jon Bastian’s Bill & Joan is a phantasmagorical journey in search of what truly happened on that night when a speed freak and a junkie walked into a metaphorical bar, but only one walked out.

Performances of Bill & Joan will be held at
Sacred Fools Theater
660 N. Heliotrope Ave
Los Angeles, CA 90004
Fridays and Saturdays at 8 pm

The Sacred Fools Theatre Company is dedicated to creating and fostering a dynamic, empowered artistic community in Los Angeles. Notable previous productions include the Buster Keaton comedic biography Stoneface, the award-winning action-comedy Watson, the award-winning musical Louis & Keely, and recent hit Neverwhere. Run solely by the ensembled artists, the company’s smashing 17th season continues its ongoing commitment to the development of new plays and projects, which challenge traditional expectations of the theatrical experience. Its goal is to produce work, which invigorates, enlightens and entertains.

JAMES GREER reads from EVERYTHING FLOWS, FRANKI ELLIOT reads from KISS AS MANY WOMEN AS YOU CAN and CHRIS L. TERRY reads from ZERO FADE

Everything Flows     Kiss As Many Women As You Can    Zero Fade (Curbside Splendor)

Join us for a dynamic reading from Curbside Splendor as three writers present three very different works, a collection of experimental short stories, an art book with detachable pages and a YA novel set in the mid-90s.

James Greer is the author of the novels Artificial Light (LHotB/Akashic 2006) and The Failure(Akashic 2010), and the non-fiction book Guided By Voices: A Brief History (Grove Press), a biography of a band for which he played bass guitar. He’s written or co-written movies for Lindsay Lohan, Jackie Chan, and Steven Soderbergh, among others. He is a Contributing Editor for the Los Angeles Review of Books, and plays guitar and sings in a new band called Détective after the Godard film of that name. His new book, Everything Flows, is a collection of experimental stories with a foreword written by Robert Pollard, lead singer of Guided By Voices.

Franki Elliot is the author of Piano Rats (Curbside Splendor, 2011) and her newest book Kiss As Many Women As You Can (Curbside Splendor, 2013) is a beautiful book of "typewriter stories" - an art book with full-colored detachable postcards adorned with Chicago artist Shawn Stucky's ethereal paintings.

Chris L. Terry's debut novel Zero Fade is written for young adults and set in the heart of the 90s. It follows 13-year-old Kevin Phifer as he deals with "wack hair-cuts, bullies, last-year fly gear, his uncle Paul coming out as gay, and being grounded."

PRIYANKA KUMAR in conversation with JAMES RAGAN

Take Wing and Fly Here (Sherman Asher Books)

Join us for this evening of conversation based on the release of Priyanka Kumar's new novel, TAKE WING AND FLY HERE, the first in her trilogy about our changing relationship with the American West. James Ragan and Priyanka Kumar will touch on topics including land conservation, the influence of birding and nature on their creative projects, and a discussion of perspective in their writing, whether it's screenwriting, poetry, or fiction. Kumar will also share images of her fine art birding photography and clips from her documentary, The Song of the Little Road, starring Martin Scorsese, Ismail Merchant, and Ravi Shankar.

Praise for Take Wing and Fly Here:

"Kumar has the most unique talent. She is one of the most gifted writers I know. Her storytelling gifts make all of us sit up and take notice."--Joan Tewekesbury, author of Ebba and the Green Dresses of Olivia Gomez in a Time of Conflict and War, and screenwriter of Nashville.

Priyanka Kumar is the award-winning writer, director, and producer of the feature documentary The Song of the Little Road on Satyajit Ray, starring Martin Scorsese, Ismail Merchant, and Ravi Shankar, which premiered at the Telluride Film Festival and is in the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences' permanent collection. Kumar's awards include the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Award, the New Visions/New Mexico Award, an Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences fellowship, a Panavision Filmmaker Award. She taught filmmaking at the University of S. California, Santa Cruz. 

MIKE MADRID reads from DIVAS DAMES & DAREDEVILS

Divas Dames & Daredevils (Exterminating Angel Press)

Wonder Woman, Mary Marvel, and Sheena, Queen of the Jungle ruled the pages of comic books in the 1940s. But many heroines of the WWII era have been forgotten. Through twenty-eight full reproductions of vintage Golden Age comics, Divas, Dames & Daredevilsreintroduces their ingenious abilities to mete out justice to Nazis, aliens, and evildoers of all kinds.

Each spine-tingling chapter opens with Mike Madrid’s insightful commentary about heroines at the dawn of the comic book industry and reveals a universe populated by extraordinary women—superheroes, reporters, galactic warriors, daring detectives, and ace fighter pilots—who protected America and the world with wit and guile.

In these pages, fans will also meet heroines with striking similarities to more modern superheroes, including The Spider Queen, who deployed web shooters twenty years before Spider Man, and Marga the Panther Woman, whose feral instincts and sharp claws tore up the bad guys long before Wolverine. These women may have been overlooked in the annals of history, but their influence on popular culture, and the heroes we’re passionate about today, is unmistakable. Includes a foreword by Maria Elena Buszek, PhD.

Praise for Divas Dames & Daredevils:

"Mike Madrid gives these forgotten superheroines their due. These 'lost' heroines are now found--to the delight of comic book lovers everywhere." --Stan Lee

"In one beautifully designed collection, [Mike Madrid] reprints the blood-and-thunder stories of twenty-eight Golden Age comic book heroines. . . . Lovers of comics and strong women everywhere thank you, Mike Madrid!" --Trina Robbins, author of Pretty in Ink: Women Cartoonists 1896-2013.

"Madrid's meticulous and passionate research provides a window into a seemingly lost "herstory" of patriotism, bravery, and progressive ways of thinking about female agency and adventure. This collection, and the engaging context provided throughout, ensure that these divas, dames, and daredevils will not be forgotten." --Jennifer K. Stuller, author of Ink-Stained Amazons and Cinematic Warriors: Superwomen in Modern Mythology.

Mike Madrid is the author of Divas, Dames & Daredevils: Lost Heroines of Golden Age Comics(Exterminating Angel Press) and The Supergirls: Fashion, Feminism, Fantasy, and the History of Comic Book Heroines, an NPR "Best Book To Share With Your Friends" and American Library Association Amelia Bloomer Project Notable Book. Madrid, a San Francisco native and lifelong fan of comic books and popular culture, also appears in the documentary "Wonder Women! The Untold Story of American Superheroines."

DANIEL ALARCON reads from AT NIGHT WE WALK IN CIRCLES

At Night We Walk In Circles (Riverhead Books)

Join us tonight for a sensational reading from a writer the Minneapolis Star says "like witnessing the arrival of a John Steinbeck or Gabriel Garcia Marquez."

Set in an unnamed, South American country in the aftermath of war, At Night We Walk In Circles shares the tone and masterful prose of the work of Roberto Bolaño, and is driven by a suspenseful plot that makes it impossible to put down. The story centers around a young actor, Nelson, who becomes a part of a radical guerilla theater troupe he’s long aspired to join. Nelson becomes hopelessly entangled with the group and we learn about Nelson’s rise and downfall through the investigation of our narrator, a man obsessed with uncovering Nelson’s mysterious story. In sharp, vivid and beautiful prose, Alarcón delivers a compulsively readable narrative and a provocative meditation on fate, identity, and the large consequences that can result from even our smallest choices.

DANIEL ALARCÓN is author of War by Candlelight, a finalist for the 2005 PEN-Hemingway Award, and Lost City Radio, named a Best Novel of the Year by the San Francisco Chronicle and the Washington Post, among others. His writing has appeared in McSweeney’s, n+1, and Harper’s, and he has been named one of The New Yorker’s 20 under 40. He lives in San Francisco, California.

Aimee Bender

The Color Master (Doubleday)

One of Skylight Books' favorite authors returns with a fabulous new short story collection! You're not going to want to miss this reading.

Truly beloved by readers and critics alike, Aimee Bender has become known as something of an enchantress whose lush prose is “moving, fanciful, and gorgeously strange” (People), “richly imagined and bittersweet” (Vanity Fair), and “full of provocative ideas” (The Boston Globe). In her deft hands, “relationships and mundane activities take on mythic qualities” (The Wall Street Journal).

In this collection, Bender’s unique talents sparkle brilliantly in stories about people searching for connection through love, sex, and family—while navigating the often painful realities of their lives. A traumatic event unfolds when a girl with flowing hair of golden wheat appears in an apple orchard, where a group of people await her. A woman plays out a prostitution fantasy with her husband and finds she cannot go back to her old sex life. An ugly woman marries an ogre and struggles to decide if she should stay with him after he mistakenly eats their children. Two sisters travel deep into Malaysia, where one learns the art of mending tigers who have been ripped to shreds.

In these deeply resonant stories—evocative, funny, beautiful, and sad—we see ourselves reflected as if in a funhouse mirror. Aimee Bender has once again proven herself to be among the most imaginative, exciting, and intelligent writers of our time.

Praise for Aimee Bender

"Marvelous. . . . Few writers are as adept as Bender at mingling magical elements so seamlessly with the ordinary." "--San Francisco Chronicle

AIMEE BENDER is the author of the novels The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake—a New York Times bestseller—and An Invisible Sign of My Own, and of the collections The Girl in the Flammable Skirt and Willful Creatures. Her works have been widely anthologized and have been translated into sixteen languages. She lives in Los Angeles.

Chuck Klosterman

I Wear The Black Hat (Scribner Book Company)

 From New York Times bestselling author, "one of America's top cultural critics" (Entertainment Weekly), and "The Ethicist" for The New York Times Magazine, comes a new book of all original pieces on villains and villainy.

Chuck Klosterman has walked into the darkness. As a boy, he related to the cultural figures who represented goodness--but as an adult, he found himself unconsciously aligning with their enemies. This was not because he necessarily liked what they were doing; it was because they were doing it on purpose (and they were doing it better). They wanted to be evil. And what, exactly, was that supposed to mean? When we classify someone as a bad person, what are we really saying (and why are we so obsessed with saying it)? In I Wear the Black Hat, Klosterman questions the very nature of how modern people understand the concept of villainy. What was so Machiavellian about Machiavelli? Why don't we see Batman the same way we see Bernhard Goetz? Who's more worthy of our vitriol--Bill Clinton or Don Henley? What was O.J. Simpson's second-worst decision? And why is Klosterman still obsessed with some kid he knew for one week in 1985?

Masterfully blending cultural analysis with self-interrogation and limitless imagination, I Wear the Black Hat delivers perceptive observations on the complexity of the anti-hero (seemingly the only kind of hero America still creates). I Wear the Black Hat is the rare example of serious criticism that's instantly accessible and really, really funny. Klosterman is the only writer doing whatever it is he's doing.

Chuck Klosterman is the New York Times bestselling author of seven previous books, including Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs; Eating the Dinosaur; Killing Yourself to Live; and The Visible Man. His debut book, Fargo Rock City, was the winner of the ASCAP-Deems Taylor Award. He has written for GQ, Esquire, Spin, The Washington Post, The Guardian, The Believer, and The Onion A.V. Club. He currently serves as “The Ethicist” for the New York Times Magazine and writes about sports and popular culture for ESPN. 

THIS EVENT WAS RECORDED LIVE AT SKYLIGHT BOOKS JULY 17, 2013.

COPIES OF THE BOOK FROM THIS EVENT CAN BE PURCHASED HERE: http://www.skylightbooks.com/book/9781439184493

Gabriel Roth

The Unknowns (Reagan Arthur Books)  

 You will not want to miss this event! Gabriel Roth has delivered a debut novel that, to many, signals the arrival of the next New Big Thing.

Eric Muller has been trying to hack the girlfriend problem for half his life. As a teenage geek, he discovered his gift for programming computers-but his attempts to understand women only confirm that he's better at writing code than connecting with human beings. Brilliant, neurotic, and lonely, Eric spends high school in the solitary glow of a screen.

By his early twenties, Eric's talent has made him a Silicon Valley millionaire. He can coax girls into bed with ironic remarks and carefully timed intimacies, but hiding behind wit and empathy gets lonely, and he fears that love will always be out of reach.
So when Eric falls for the beautiful, fiercely opinionated Maya Marcom, and she miraculously falls for him too, he's in new territory. But the more he learns about his perfect girlfriend's unresolved past, the further Eric's obsessive mind spirals into confusion and doubt. Can he reconcile his need for order and logic with the mystery and chaos of love?

This brilliant debut ushers Eric Muller-flawed, funny, irresistibly endearing-into the pantheon of unlikely heroes. With an unblinking eye for the absurdities and horrors of contemporary life, Gabriel Roth gives us a hilarious and heartbreaking meditation on self consciousness, memory, and love.

Praise for The Unknowns: 

"What a funny, moving, brilliantly cut gem of a novel. An ever-shifting Venn diagram of love and logic, The Unknowns floored me." --author of Panorama City, Antoine Wilson

"The Unknowns feels at first like a very great and very funny coming-of-age novel, about a high-school loser destined for Internet riches. But then suddenly you realize you're reading something much more powerful: a beautiful and painful story about the dangers of learning too much-and about how little we can ever really know about other people."--author of The Last Policeman, Ben H. Winters 

"The Unknowns is so staggeringly funny and smart that its depths and sorrows, when they came, took my breath away."--author of Dare Me, Megan Abbott

"Gabriel Roth's first novel is a warmly wry coming-of-age story and a darkly funny-and darkly resonant-satire of one effervescent moment in San Francisco's abusive relationship with technology. If Peter Thiel had backed a character from Infinite Jest, he would have gone on to look something like Eric Muller. A tender, comic debut from one of the coder-novelists of the future."--author of A Sense of Direction, Gideon Lewis-Kraus

Gabriel Roth was born and raised in London and educated at Brown University and at San Francisco State University, from which he received a Master of Fine Arts in creative writing. For several years he was employed as a reporter and editor at the San Francisco Bay Guardian. He now works as a writer and software developer and lives with his family in Brooklyn, New York. THE UNKNOWNS is his first novel. 

EMERGING VOICES FELLOWSHIP MEET AND GREET

PEN Center USA will present an Emerging Voices Fellowship panel of current and former Emerging Voices Fellows and mentors for the benefit of interested applicants. PEN Center USA's mission is to stimulate and maintain interest in the written word, to foster a vital literary culture, and to defend freedom of expression domestically and internationally.

Tao Lin on Taipei

TAIPEI (Vintage Books)

From one of this generation's most talked about and enigmatic writers comes a deeply personal, powerful, and moving novel about family, relationships, accelerating drug use, and the lingering possibility of death.

"Tao Lin [is] an excellent writer of avant-garde fiction. His new novel is his most mature work, and follows a young New York writer to Taipei, where he must reconcile his family's roots with the haze of MDMA, texts and tweets that he's been living in. Mr. Lin has refined his deadpan prose style here into an icy, cynical, but ultimately thrilling and unique literary voice."--New York Observer

"With Taipei Tao Lin becomes the most interesting prose stylist of his generation." --Bret Easton Ellis

Tao Lin is the author of the novels Richard Yates and Eeeee Eee Eeee, the novella Shoplifting from American Apparel, the story collection Bed, and the poetry collections cognitive-behavioral therapy and you are a little bit happier than i am. He is the founder and editor of the literary press Muumuu House. His work has been translated to twelve languages and he lives in Manhattan.

THIS EVENT WAS RECORDED LIVE AT SKYLIGHT BOOKS JUNE 20, 2013.

COPIES OF THE BOOK FROM THIS EVENT CAN BE PURCHASED HERE:
http://www.skylightbooks.com/book/9780307950178

SUSIE NORRIS & SUSAN HEEGER

HAND-CRAFTED CANDY BARS (Chronicle Books)

The beloved candy bars of childhood have grown up, but there is no need to go to the French Laundry to get your fix. Candy bar devotees Susie Norris and Susan Heeger show how to reinvent candy bars as they should be--thick and layered with nougat, crisp with toffee, and coated with fine chocolate. Familiar candy-store bars and other nostalgic favorites are re-created using the freshest ingredients, right down to the peanut-laden caramel and chocolate-drenched cookie crunch. A mix-and-match flavor chart inspires anyone with a sweet tooth to dream up custom treats of their own, such as covering marshmallows with molten chocolate. From the basics of candy making to tips on dressing up these luscious indulgences as elegant desserts, Hand-Crafted Candy Bars evokes the sweet memory of youth with simple, scrumptious sophistication.

Susie Norris is a cookbook author, award-winning artisan chocolatier, pastry chef/instructor, and educational fundraiser.  Her first book was CHOCOLATE BLISS (Random House, 2008) and HAND-CRAFTED CANDY BARS (Chronicle, 2013) has just been released, Her chocolate work has been featured on Food Network, in Dessert Professional Magazine and many other publications. She recently taught baking at Le Cordon Bleu College of Culinary Arts and Sur La Table in Los Angeles.  Prior to her work in the food business, she was Vice President of Series Television at Disney Channel and held similar positions at Nickelodeon, CBS, NBC and Turner Network Television.  www.handcraftedcandybars.com

Susan Heeger, co-author of Hand-Crafted Candy Bars, is a California native and graduate of Harvard University. A long-time magazine and newspaper feature writer, she specializes in garden, design, home, lifestyle, and food stories. She is a former staff writer for Martha Stewart Living and author of the newly released Landprints: The Landscape Designs of Bernard Trainor, published by Princeton Architectural Press. She also co-wrote From Seed to Skillet, a guide to edible gardening and cooking from the garden, published by Chronicle Books. Her feature stories have appeared in publications that include The Los Angeles Times Magazine, This Old House, Martha Stewart Living, Coastal Living, Country Living, and Cooking Light.

THIS EVENT WAS RECORDED LIVE AT SKYLIGHT BOOKS ON JUNE 18, 2013.

COPIES OF THE BOOK FROM THIS EVENT CAN BE PURCHASED HERE: http://www.skylightbooks.com/book/9781452109657

ROB YARDUMIAN

The Sounds of Songs Across the Water (MP Publishing)

It's the summer of 1995, and in the heat of the hills above Los Angeles, Riley Oliver is trying to find redemption in rock 'n' roll. Fifteen years have passed since his band flamed out at CBGB, and Riley sees the life his former guitarist Will Turner has built -- successful producing career, the lovely Lena for a wife, a gated home -- and he wants some of that luck for himself. Jumping the fence, Riley brings the shadows of the past back to Will, and long-buried conflicts darken the sunny Southern California scene. Lena herself is restless in this creative world; she has been living in the background of the music industry far too long, and this summer becomes one of longing and self-discovery for her and for her uninvited guest.

The Sound of Songs Across the Water traces creation and betrayal, joining and fissure at a time when lovers still made mixtapes to show they cared. Rob Yardumian's language vibrates like a string under the pressure of fingertips, sliding and reckless as he tells the story of bittersweet inspiration and the pain of bringing art to life.

Rob Yardumian's fiction has appeared in The Southern Review, The Antioch Review, The New Orleans Review, and other literary journals. He has an MFA from the Warren Wilson Program for Writers, and this is his first novel. He currently lives in Portland, OR. 

THIS EVENT WAS RECORDED LIVE AT SKYLIGHT BOOKS JUNE 17, 2013.

COPIES OF THE BOOK FROM THIS EVENT CAN BE PURCHASED HERE:

http://www.skylightbooks.com/book/9781849822374

ELIZABETH ROSS

Belle Epoque (Delacorte Press Books for Young Readers)

 Join us for the launch of this young adult novel!

"With resonant period detail, elegant narration, and a layered exploration of class and friendship, this provocative novel is rife with satisfaction."--Booklist

When Maude Pichon runs away from provincial Brittany to Paris, her romantic dreams vanish as quickly as her savings. Desperate for work, she answers an unusual ad. The Durandeau Agency provides its clients with a unique service-the beauty foil. Hire a plain friend and become instantly more attractive.

Monsieur Durandeau has made a fortune from wealthy socialites, and when the Countess Dubern needs a companion for her headstrong daughter, Isabelle, Maude is deemed the perfect adornment of plainness.

But Isabelle has no idea her new "friend" is the hired help, and Maude's very existence among the aristocracy hinges on her keeping the truth a secret. Yet the more she learns about Isabelle, the more her loyalty is tested. And the longer her deception continues, the more she has to lose.

Inspired by a short story written by Emile Zola, Belle Epoque is set at the height of bohemian Paris, when the city was at the peak of decadence, men and women were at their most beautiful, and morality was at its most depraved.

ELIZABETH ROSS studied French at the University of Glasgow in Scotland, and between semesters she worked in Paris and Brittany. She lives in Los Angeles. When she isn't writing, she edits feature films. 

THIS READING WAS RECORDED LIVE AT SKYLIGHT BOOKS JUNE 15, 2013

COPIES OF THE BOOK FROM THIS EVENT CAN BE PURCHASED HERE: http://www.skylightbooks.com/book/9780385741460