Groves of Academe | Apr 29

A Special Presentation with Fiona Farrell, Author of The Deck

The Groves of Academe reading group is delighted to be joined by this month’s author Fiona Farrell to discuss her new book. Fiona Farrell is one of New Zealand’s leading writers. Educated at the universities of Otago and Toronto, she has published volumes of poetry, collections of short stories, non-fiction works, and many novels. We are looking forward to engaging with this smart and talented individual, who has an affection for Canada rooted in her time as graduate student in Ontario in the early 1970s.

This event is open to all members. Please register below. 

About the Book

What is the point of inventing stories when reality eclipses imagination? A little way off in the future, during a time of plague and profound social collapse, a group of friends escapes to a house in the country where they entertain themselves by playing music, eating, drinking and telling stories about their lives. There are tales of thieves and pirates, deaths and a surprise birth, a freak wave and many other stories of misadventure resulting in unexpected felicity. The Deck borrows the motifs of Giovanni Boccaccio’s 14th-century masterpiece, The Decameron, in which another small group gathered to avoid contagion and passed the time telling stories. But what is the role of fiction, this novel asks, as civilisation falters?

About the Author 

 Fiona Farrell's first novel, The Skinny Louie Book, won the 1993 New Zealand Book Award for fiction. Other novels, poetry and non-fiction books have been shortlisted for the Montana and New Zealand Post Book Awards with four novels also nominated for the International Dublin IMPAC Award. In 2007 she received the Prime Minister’s Award for Fiction, and in 2012 was appointed an Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to literature. The Broken Book, a book of essays relating to the Christchurch earthquakes, was shortlisted for the non-fiction award in the 2012 Book Awards and critically greeted as the ‘first major artwork’ to emerge from the event. The Villa at the Edge of the Empire was also shortlisted for this award in 2016. Her work, which The New Zealand Herald has praised for its ‘richness — of both theme and language’, has been published around the world, including in the US, France and the UK. Beryl Fletcher praised Farrell for having ‘. . . the rare ability of turning the mundane events of domestic life into profound human experiences. Her writing is poetic, moving and literary.’

When:  Monday April 29 at 4:00 pm
Where: Zoom

Watch the Recording

Open to all Emeritus College Members. The Groves group will be meeting prior to the author joining the meeting for regular discussion. Please contact Graeme Wynn for more details please contact convenor, Graeme Wynn (wynn@geog.ubc.ca).