Author Talk and Book sighing with Alex Mar

849 South Auto Mall Road,Bloomington IN 47401

13 April, 2023

Description

A masterful, revelatory work of literary non-fiction about a teenage girl’s shocking crime—and its extraordinary aftermath. Join author Alex Mar (Witches of America) for a conversation with Mitch Teplitsky and a book signing for her acclaimed new book Seventy Times Seven. Purchase of the book guarantees your seat Books purchased will be available for pick-up at the event. About the book On a spring afternoon in 1985 in Gary, Indiana, a fifteen-year-old girl kills an elderly woman in a violent home invasion. In a city with a history of racial tensions and white flight, the girl, Paula Cooper, is Black, and her victim, Ruth Pelke, is white and a beloved Bible teacher. The press swoops in. When Paula is sentenced to death, no one decries the impending execution of a tenth-grader. But the tide begins to shift when the victim’s grandson Bill forgives the girl, against the wishes of his family, and campaigns to spare her life. This tragedy in a midwestern steel town soon reverberates across the United States and around the world... Reviews: "Riveting…addresses challenges of juvenile punishment with insight…A probing and moving book.” — The Wall Street Journal "Alex Mar has written the truest kind of crime drama... devastating and essential ..." —Sierra Crane Murdoch, Pulitzer Prize finalist for Yellow Bird "...will engross readers for years to come." —New York Magazine (The Best Books of 2023) About the author Alex Mar is the author of Witches of America, a New York Times Notable Book of 2015. Her work has appeared in New York Magazine, Wired, The New York Times Book Review, and The Guardian, among many other outlets, as well as The Best American Magazine Writing. She was a finalist for the National Magazine Award in Feature Writing in 2018. She is also the director of the feature-length documentary American Mystic. She lives in the Hudson Valley and New York City.