"Truly an up-all-night-Read." Adriana Leshko, Washington Post

The Inspired Writers series continues at Fairfield University with novelist Joshua Henkin, whose latest book, "Matrimony," was a New York Times Notable Book. Henkin will discuss his novel and sign copies on Tuesday, March 31 at 7:00 p.m. in the Dolan School of Business Dining Room. The event is presented by Fairfield University's MFA in Creative Writing program and admission is free.

Ten years in the writing, "Matrimony" received stunning reviews when it was published in hardcover in 2007 by Pantheon, a division of Random House. Michael Cunningham, Pulitzer-Prize-winning author of "The Hours," described Henkin's work as "In the tradition of John Cheever and Richard Yates … a novel about love, hope, delusion and the intricate ways in which time's passage raises us up even as it grinds us down. It's a beautiful book." Jennifer Egan wrote in The New York Times Book Review , "Beguiling ... (Henkin writes) effortless scenes that float between past and present ... (He creates) an almost personal nostalgia for these characters."

Starting at the height of the Reagan era in 1987 and ending in the new millennium, "Matrimony" is about love and friendship, about money and ambition, desire and tensions of faith. It asks what happens to a marriage when it is confronted by betrayal and the specter of mortality. What happens when people marry younger than they'd expected? Can love endure the passing of time? In its emotional honesty, its generosity and wry wit, "Matrimony" is a detailed portrait of what it means to share a life with someone - to do so when you're young and to try again, afresh, on the brink of middle age.

"Matrimony" was a Book Sense Highlight Pick of the Year and a Borders Original Voices Selection. Henkin's short stories have been published in Glimmer Train, Ploughshares, The Southern Review, The Yale Review, Double Take and elsewhere.

Henkin lives in Brooklyn, New York and teaches in the creative writing programs at Sarah Lawrence College and Brooklyn College and at the Unterberg Poetry Center of the 92nd Street Y. The event is complimentary, but seating is limited; please call (203) 254-4110 for reservations.

Posted On: 03-13-2009 10:03 AM

Volume: 41 Number: 245