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Kathleen Rooney will discuss her new novel "Man Overboard!" She will be joined in conversation by Deborah Shapiro. A Q&A and book signing will follow the discussion. At the Co-op
About the Book: Patrick “Kick” Kilpatrick hates the ocean. Has always been terrified of it. And now he’s in a real pickle.
Drifting alone in the sea after falling (or jumping? He can’t remember as the all-inclusive drinks on the cruise he was taking with his extended family were, well, inclusive) Kick must survive. Breath by breath, hour by hour in the lonely sea.
As the waves crash over him, so too do the thoughts and memories of just how he got there. A Thanksgiving cruise with an obnoxious brother-in-law he has to bite his tongue to keep from screaming at. A father who gives the Great Santini a run for his money. And a mother, who already left the family boat, so to speak, a long time ago. His family may be complicated, and the pains of life may seem unbearable—infuriating enough to leap from the deck—but maybe the will to survive is stronger.
"Man Overboard!" is an inventive, slyly hilarious, and inspiring novel about what it means to be alive, stay alive, and what keeps us going no matter how choppy the waves of our journey become. Hold on for dear life!
About the Author: Kathleen Rooney is a founding editor of Rose Metal Press, a nonprofit publisher of literary work in hybrid genres, as well as a founding member of Poems While You Wait, a collective of poets and their typewriters who compose poetry on demand. Winner of the XJ Kennedy Prize for her poetry collection "Where Are the Snows" (Texas Review Press, 2022), Rooney is the author of five novels, including "Lillian Boxfish Takes a Walk" and "From Dust to Stardust" and the co-author—with her sister Beth Rooney—of the picture book "Leaf Town Forever" (University of Minnesota Press, 2025). She lives in Chicago with her spouse, the writer Martin Seay.
About the Interlocutor: Deborah Shapiro is the author of the novels "The Sun in Your Eyes" (2016, a New York Times Book Review Editors’ Choice), "The Summer Demands" (2019), and "Consolation" (2022). Her latest book is "Watching the Detective" (2025). Her writing has appeared in The New York Times Book Review, Los Angeles Review of Books, Sight Unseen, Chicago Magazine, Literary Hub, Washington Square Review, and elsewhere. She is the publisher of B-Side Editions and lives with her family in Chicago.
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Event Venue
5751 S Woodlawn Ave, Chicago, IL, United States, Illinois 60637
Tickets
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