About this Event
Join us at Mrs. Dalloway's Bookstore on Thursday, August 14 at 7:00 PM when famed television writer and producer Aisha Muharrar comes to the store to share her debut novel Loved One. Aisha will be joined in conversation by Shruti Swamy and will sign copies of her book after the presentation.
to preorder a copy of Loved One.
When her first-love-turned-close-friend, Gabe, dies unexpectedly at twenty-nine, thirty-year-old Julia is launched into an intercontinental quest to recover his lost possessions. Her journey takes her from Los Angeles to London and into the murky realm of the past. It also sets Julia on a collision course with the last woman he loved, a guarded, self-possessed florist and restaurateur named Elizabeth, who insists on withholding Gabe’s beloved guitar—one of the departed indie rock musician’s dearest belongings—for reasons Julia can’t understand. Both women, it turns out, have something to hide, and soon find themselves engaged in a complex dance of withholding and revelation.
An emotional mystery spanning years, continents, and relationship statuses, Loved One introduces Aisha Muharrar as a novelist intimately attuned to the intricacies of love, memory, and ambiguous loss. What happens when we admit that the deepest feelings never die? How do we reconcile various—and sometimes contradictory—truths about those closest to us? An engrossing and profoundly moving coming-of-age story with a powerful love at its heart, Loved One is poised to become an instant classic.
AISHA MUHARRAR is an Emmy Award-winning writer and Co-Executive Producer of the hit show Hacks (HBO). She was a writer for Parks and Recreation (NBC) for six seasons and has also written for The Good Place (NBC) and Sit Down, Shut Up (Fox). She hosted the video series Book Report for Amy Poehler’s Smart Girls. Born in Connecticut and raised on Long Island, Aisha received her BA from Harvard. As a teenager, she wrote the nonfiction book More Than a Label. Loved One is her first novel.
SHRUTI SWAMY is the author of the story collection A House Is a Body, and a novel, The Archer. She has received grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, Elizabeth George Foundation, the San Francisco Arts Council, and Vassar College, and is a 2024 Rome Prize Fellow in Literature. Shruti’s work has appeared in The Paris Review, McSweeny's, AFAR Magazine, and The Believer, and twice won the O. Henry Prize. Her introduction to Ursula K Le Guin’s masterpiece Always Coming Home appears in the novel’s 2023 reissue. She teaches writing with the collective The Dream Side.
THIS EVENT is free but registration is requested. Registration ends at 6:00 pm on August 14.
BECAUSE SEATING is limited, please register only if you plan to attend.
DUE TO SPACE limitations, we may not be able to accommodate every person at an event, so early registration is encouraged.
WALK-INS will be accommodated only if space allows.
WE ASK that attendees arrive between 6:45 and 7:00 PM for the event.
PLEASE leave your non-support companion animals at home.
OUR shared restrooms are not accessible after 6:30 PM, please plan accordingly.
Event Venue & Nearby Stays
Mrs Dalloway's, 2904 College Avenue, Berkeley, United States
USD 0.00
