The Last Bird of Paradise with Clifford Garstang and Patricia Smith!

We are continuing our streak of local authors with returning friends Clifford Garstang and Patricia Smith! They will be in conversation at the store.

FREE REGISTRATION REQUIRED!

About the Book:

Two women, nearly a century apart, seek to rebuild their lives when they reluctantly leave their homelands. Arriving in Singapore, they find romance in a tropical paradise, but also find they haven’t left behind the dangers that caused them to flee.

In the aftermath of 9/11 and haunted by the specter of terrorism, Aislinn Givens leaves her New York law practice and joins her husband in Southeast Asia when he takes a job there. Seeking to establish herself in a local law firm, Aislinn begins to understand the historic resentment of foreigners who have exploited the region for centuries. Learning about the turmoil of Singapore’s colonial period, she acquires several paintings done by an English artist during World War I that she believes are a warning to her. The artist, Elizabeth Pennington, tells her own tumultuous story through diary entries that come to an end when the war reaches the colony with catastrophic results. In the present, Aislinn and her husband learn tragically that terrorism takes many shapes when they are ensnared by local political upheaval and corruption.

In a lyrical blend of historical and contemporary drama, The Last Bird of Paradise explores the consequences of power imbalances—both domestic and geopolitical—against a lush, tropical backdrop. Clifford Garstang, author of the award-winning novel Oliver’s Travels, once again draws on his decades of experience in Asia to tell an unforgettable story of romantic intrigue.

About the Author:

Clifford Garstang, a former international lawyer, is the author of two previous novels, The Shaman of Turtle Valley and Oliver’s Travels, and three short story collections, House of the Ancients and Other Stories, In an Uncharted Country, and What the Zhang Boys Know, winner of the Library of Virginia Literary Award for Fiction. He is the editor of the anthology series Everywhere Stories: Short Fiction from a Small Planet, and the co-founder and former editor of Prime Number Magazine. He is the recipient of a Walter E. Dakin Fellowship to the Sewanee Writers’ Conference and an Indiana Emerging Author Award from the Indianapolis Public Library Foundation. His work has appeared in numerous literary magazines and has received distinguished mention in the Best American series.

Patricia (Patty) Smith is the author of the novel The Year of Needy Girls, a 2018 finalist for a Lambda Literary Award. Her work has been nominated four times for a Pushcart and has appeared most recently in Makeout Creek and in the anthology Writing Through the Apocalypse: Pandemic Poetry and Prose. She teaches American Literature and Creative Writing at the Appomattox Regional Governor’s School in Petersburg, VA.