The Taipei Cultural Center in New York proudly announces Taiwanese Author Horace Ho will present his novel The Tree Fort on Carnation Lane, translated by Darryl Sterk, on October 31, 7pm at 2019TIFA(Toronto International Festival of Authors ).
The Tree Fort on Carnation Lane is Horace Ho’s third novel. This novel is about three boys: Daniel, Brand and Ilya, who were born in the same neighborhood near a red light district in Taiwan during the 1970s and 1980s. Told through the lens of Daniel as the narrator, who is already in his mid-thirties, we travel between past and present, puberty and maturity, tradition and taboo, upscale residence and slum, life and death…trying to decrypt the reasons behind the shocking suicide of Ilya.
The three boys’ parents didn’t like them visiting the market by themselves and expressly forbade them from taking a single step into Carnation Lane. But the appearance of a chained orangutan in a night market spectacle the year the three friends turned twelve convinced them to defy the parental ban. While the adults were away at a protest against Taiwan’s endless Martial Law, they stole into the banned zone, released the beast from bondage and led it upstream, on a quest to find the fabled zoo.
The memory of this all-but-forgotten childhood experience comes back after news of his friend’s suicide. It seems to Daniel that the two events must somehow be connected. A cryptologist by training, he decides to investigate, hoping to solve the mystery of his friend’s death and decode the message contained within the memory that has shaped, even warped, their later lives.
Horace Ho (Ho Chih-ho) was born in Taipei in 1967. He received M.F.A. degree in Creative Writing from National Dong Hwa University and Ph.D. degree in Comparative Literature from Fu Jen Catholic University. He is the winner of several literature awards, including the United Daily News Literature Awards for Short Stories. He has published a collection of short stories The Night When the Night Was Lost (2001) , and three novels The melancholy of the white city (2005), The Offshore Island Bible (2008) and The Tree Fort on Carnation Lane (2013). Currently he is teaching Creative Writing at Chinese Culture University in Taipei.
Reading & Conversation: Rune Christiansen, Michael Crummey and Horace Ho
The writers in this forum tackle the difficult themes of grief and loss in childhood, in their latest works. Acclaimed Norwegian poet and novelist Rune Christiansen presents Fanny and the Mystery in the Grieving Forest, Taiwanese author and recipient of the United Daily News Literature Prize, Horace Ho, presents The Tree Fort on Carnation Lane, and Newfoundland author and award-winning poet Michael Crummey presents The Innocents (longlisted for the 2019 Scotiabank Giller Prize). Get to know these acclaimed writers through their fascinating conversation and learn from their resilient characters. This conversation will be moderated by Ania Szado. Hosted by Danila Botha.
Thursday, October 31, 2019 - 7:00 PM
Book Signing, Panel Discussion, Q & A, Reading: 40th Festival Edition | Festivals
Lakeside Terrace, Harbourfront Centre (235 Queens Quay West Toronto M5J 2G8)
https://festivalofauthors.ca/events/reading-conversation-rune-christiansen-michael-crummey-and-horace-ho
Toronto International Festival of Authors 2019
October 24–November 3, 2019
Various locations
Official hashtags: #FestAt40 #FestofAuthors19
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