“Children of God” the Adult Book Discussion on March 17

Master storyteller David H. Lynn, editor of the Kenyon Review and Kenyon College Professor of English, will share insight into his latest release, “Children of God,” at the adult book discussion on Tuesday, March 17, 7:00 p.m. at the Public Library of Mount Vernon and Knox County, 201 Mulberry Street, Mount Vernon.

In this probing collection of new and selected stories, Lynn brings his keen eye and astute sense of drama and narrative to bear on the complex currents of human existence, exploring how the ideas we use to give purpose to our lives, whether they be modest or grand, are all too often set on unstable terrain.

In the O’Henry Award-winning “Divergence” a college professor discovers after a freak cycling accident that the carefully assembled details of the most treasured part of his life—his thoughts and emotions—have been irretrievably altered . . . and along with them everything he ever knew about himself. In “Mistaken Identity” a poet frequently taken for a more famous counterpart of the same name, makes a rash decision to fraudulently accept an invitation for a reading tour in India in a desperate attempt to remake her life. And in the title story, a playful exchange turns menacing as an American child in Delhi has his sense of normalcy overturned when he learns the hard way that privilege has its limits. (Braddock Avenue Books)

Lynn is the author of two earlier collections of stories, “Year of Fire,” published by Harcourt, and “Fortune Telling,” from Carnegie Mellon University Press. A 2016 recipient of an O. Henry Prize for the story “Divergence,” he is also the author of the novel, “Wrestling with Gabriel,” and “The Hero’s Tale: Narrators in the Early Modern Novel,” a critical study. His stories and essays have appeared in magazines and journals in the U.S., the U.K., India, and Australia. He has been the editor of The Kenyon Review, an international journal of literature, culture and the arts since 1994.

The program is free and open to the public. Refreshments will be served. Copies of the book are available at the library or can be purchased at Paragraphs Book Store, Kenyon College Book Store or will be available for purchase and signed during the program. All participants that evening will be eligible to win a copy of the book donated by the Friends of the Library.

For more information call the main library at 740-392-BOOK (2665), visit www.knox.net or email communityrelations@knox.net.