October's Read: On Sal Mal Lane by Ru Freeman

Meeting date: Monday, October 20
Location: Open Book, Mahai Book Club Room
Special guest: Jocelyn Hale, Executive Director, The Loft Literary Center
Host: Chris

From the publisher, our own Graywolf Press: On the day the Herath family moves in, Sal Mal Lane is still a quiet street, disturbed only by the cries of the children whose triumphs and tragedies sustain the families that live there. As the neighbors adapt to the newcomers in different ways, the children fill their days with cricket matches, romantic crushes, and small rivalries.

But the tremors of civil war are mounting, and the conflict threatens to engulf them all. In a heart-rending novel poised between the past and the future, the innocence of the children -- a beloved sister and her over-protective siblings, a rejected son and his twin sisters, two very different brothers -- contrasts sharply with the petty prejudices of the adults charged with their care. In Ru Freeman's masterful hands, On Sal Mal Lane, a story of what was lost to a country and her people, becomes a resounding cry for reconciliation.

A big welcome to the evening's special guest

Jocelyn Hale, executive director of The Loft Literary Center, will join us for conversation and discussion. She's reading the book now!