LITERARY IN THE LOUNGE Presents Award-Winning Author Rebecca Makkai, February 22

On Wednesday, February 22 at 7pm, award-winning author and Pulitzer Prize finalist Rebecca Makkai visits The Music Hall's Lounge with her new novel, I HAVE SOME QUESTIONS FOR YOU, a riveting mystery around a murder at a New Hampshire boarding school.

The 7pm event includes an author discussion moderated by Lara Prescott, bestselling author of The Secrets We Kept, followed by an audience Q&A. It will be held at The Music Hall Lounge at 131 Congress St., in Portsmouth, New Hampshire.

"Rebecca Makkai's transfixing prose and engaging voice has made her one of the most acclaimed contemporary American writers," said Lara Prescott, the evening's moderator. "I can't wait to speak with her as she introduces readers to her new haunting mystery."

A successful film professor and podcaster, Bodie Kane is content to forget her past-the family tragedy that marred her adolescence, her four largely miserable years at a New Hampshire boarding school, and the murder of her former roommate, Thalia Keith, in the spring of their senior year. Though the circumstances surrounding Thalia's death and the conviction of the school's athletic trainer, Omar Evans, are hotly debated online, Bodie prefers-needs-to let sleeping dogs lie.

But when the Granby School invites her back to teach a course, Bodie is inexorably drawn to the case and its increasingly apparent flaws. In their rush to convict Omar, did the school and the police overlook other suspects? Is the real killer still out there? As she falls down the very rabbit hole she was so determined to avoid, Bodie begins to wonder if she wasn't as much of an outsider at Granby as she'd thought-if, perhaps, back in 1995, she knew something that might have held the key to solving the case.

Rebecca Makkai's last novel, The Great Believers, was a finalist for both the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award, and received the ALA Carnegie Medal, LA Times Book Prize, among other awards. Her other works include The Borrower and The Hundred-Year House, and the collection Music for Wartime-four stories from which appeared in The Best American Short Stories. A 2022 Guggenheim Fellow, Rebecca is on the MFA faculties of Sierra Nevada University and Northwestern University, and is Artistic Director of StoryStudio Chicago.

Lara Prescott is the author of The Secrets We Kept, an instant New York Times bestseller and a Reese Witherspoon Book Club Pick. The Secrets We Kept has been translated into over 30 languages and is being adapted for television. She recently moved to Portsmouth, NH with her family and is currently at work on her second novel.

The ticket package for Literary in the Lounge: Rebecca Makkai with I HAVE SOME QUESTIONS FOR YOU on Wednesday, February 22, at 7pm is $45. Ticket Package includes a signed book (I HAVE SOME QUESTIONS FOR YOU, $28, hardcover), reserved seat, beverage, author discussion, Q+A, and book signing meet-and-greet. Tickets can be purchased online at TheMusicHall.org, over the phone at 603.436.2400, or in person at the B2W Box Office at the Historic Theater, 28 Chestnut Street.

Akin to The Music Hall's anchor literary series, Writers on a New England Stage, Literary in the Lounge features bestselling authors in a more intimate space. The series brings audiences today's top authors, the best of fiction and nonfiction, and award-winners across categories, and is hosted in The Music Hall Lounge, formerly called the Loft, at 131 Congress St., in Portsmouth NH.

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