With Parnaz Foroutan, author of THE GIRL FROM THE GARDEN, after reading together at Mrs. Dalloways in Berkeley.
I send out a big, enormous thank you to everyone who took part in my events for THE GODS OF TANGO in the past two months. A huge bow to the marvelous bookstores and libraries in San Diego, Los Angeles, Seattle, San Francisco, Oakland, Berkeley, Castro Valley, and Corte Madera, and all their dedicated staff who organized and hosted so gracefully. I am grateful to the many couples who danced tango in celebration of the book, and even taught the dance to the audience, as well as the cooks who baked empanadas or alfajores to give the events a cultural, festive flair.
I’m also grateful to the many wonderful journalists, critics, and bloggers who took the time to talk with me about the book (you can read or listen to interviews here).
And, of course, I am deeply thankful to the amazing audiences who turned out for events, who listened, reached for the book, and asked so very many intriguing questions. Novels don’t only hold stories and characters; they can also serve as portals into wider themes and reflections on the world, and, for me, the launch of THE GODS OF TANGO
My childhood friend, Argentinean-Italian writer Flavia Baralle, reading THE GODS OF TANGO on holiday in Tuscany.
has been an incredible opportunity for dialogue on themes including immigration, cultural identity, Argentina and Uruguay, music, sexual transgressions, the transgender spectrum, queer history, recent social evolution with regard to gay rights, and, of course, the rich true origins of the tango.
I still have some Bay Area events coming up this fall, as well as a weekend at the Miami Book Festival. For more details, feel free to click here.
I wish everyone a beautiful autumn–or spring, of course, depending on your hemisphere.
