Name: Oklahoma Native Brian Castleberry
Start: 2025-04-03T19:00:00-05:00
Location: Magic City Books

Magic City Books is proud to welcome Oklahoma native Brian Castleberry for a free in-store event to celebrate the release of his second novel, The Californians, on Thursday, April 3 at 7:00 pm.
Brian Castleberry is the author of Nine Shiny Objects which was longlisted for the PEN/Faulkner Award in 2021. We hosted a virtual event with Brian for the release of Nine Shiny Objects, you can watch his conversation with author Kelli Jo Ford on the Magic City Books YouTube channel.
Castleberry's new book, The Californians, is an American epic that spans a century from the early days of American cinema through the rise of NFTs.
Joining Brian Castleberry in conversation on April 3 will be Boris Dralyuk, Presidential Professor of English and Creative Writing at the University of Tulsa and Editor-in-Chief of Nimrod International Journal.
The Californians will be published on March 11 by Mariner Books. You can purchase a copy at Magic City Books or online at: https://magiccitybooks.square.site/product/the-californians/3116.
About The Californians
"The Californians is an absolute pleasure from end to end, a thrilling, century-spanning, wholly American tale of art and money, family and land, treasure and time....A brilliant read for fans of Anthony Doerr, Dana Spiotta, and Don DeLillo." -- Matt Bell, author of Appleseed
For fans of Trust and North Woods, a daring novel that spans 100 years of American history, from the early days of cinema to the rise of NFTs, about parents and children, the drive to create even in times of crisis, and the inheritance of grand western dreams.
It's 2024, and Tobey Harlan--college dropout, temporary waiter, recently dumped--steals from the wall of his father's house three paintings by the venerated and controversial artist Di Stiegl. Tobey's just lost everything he owns to a Northern California wildfire, and if he can sell the paintings (albeit in a shady way to a notorious tech bro) he can start life anew in a place no one will ever find him, perhaps even Oregon.
A hundred years before, Klaus Aaronsohn--German-Jewish immigrant, resident of the Lower East Side--inveigles his way into a film studio in Astoria, Queens. In love with silent cinema, Klaus will restyle himself Klaus von Stiegl, a mysterious aristocratic German film director. In true Hollywood fashion, he will court fame, fortune, romance, and betrayal, and end his career directing Brackett: a radical, notorious 60s-era detective show.
Weaving between Tobey and Klaus is the story of Diane "Di" Stiegl: Klaus's granddaughter, raised in Palm Springs, who claws out a career as an artist in gritty 1980s NYC. As America yields the presidency to a Hollywood cowboy, as Diane's grifter father and free-spirited mother circle in and out of her life, Diane will reflect America's most urgent and hypocritical years back to itself, uneasily finding critical adoration as well as great fame and wealth.
A dazzling novel for readers of Beautiful Ruins by Jess Walter and The Candy House by Jennifer Egan, The Californians is an ambitious and sweeping journey across a century. Nuanced and textured, gloriously funny, a critical portrait of the collective American consciousness that has brought us to today, it showcases Brian Castleberry as an inventive, stylish storyteller and a sharp observer of the human condition.
Brian Castleberry's first novel, Nine Shiny Objects, was a New York Times Editor's Choice selection and was longlisted for the PEN/Faulkner Award. His other work has been published in the Southern Review, Narrative, LitHub, the Los Angeles Review of Books, and elsewhere.