Join us for an evening with Rebecca Kauffman, who will read from her new novel, The Reservation. A conversation with Siân White will follow. This in-person event will be free and open to the public. We recommend arriving early for the best seating.
About the Book: For fans of The Bear, Elizabeth Strout, and Jennifer Egan, The Reservation explores the loves and labors of an ensemble of more than a dozen restaurant workers as they strive to get a perfect meal to the table.
On the morning of the most important booking in the long history of the celebrated restaurant, Aunt Orsa’s erupts into chaos with the discovery that twenty-two rib eye steaks have been stolen. Hers is the most august of fine-dining establishments in this Midwestern college town, and tonight Orsa is set to host a large party honoring a very special guest—a bestselling author of national renown.
And what’s up with the recent spate of online reviews, from insulting to frankly terrible? Is Orsa, who wants only to be loved, being sabotaged on several fronts? No one is above suspicion, not the Mennonite baker nor the tattooed hard-ass chef de cuisine. Could the culprit be among the servers, or even the inexperienced undergrad working as hostess?
Who aside from Rebecca Kauffman—with her talent for portraying such abundant and sympathetic characters—could write with the wit and energy needed to launch all these various individuals whirling through their days with such complex and interactive choreography?
Like the works of the mystery guest, The Reservation is a dynamic and captivating story that shows us what it takes to get a beautiful meal to the table.
About the Author: Rebecca Kauffman received her MFA in creative writing from New York University. She is the author of Another Place You’ve Never Been, which was long-listed for the Center for Fiction First Novel Prize; The Gunners, which received the Premio Tribùk dei Librai; The House on Fripp Island; Chorus; and most recently, I’ll Come to You. Originally from rural northeastern Ohio, Kauffman now lives in Virginia.
About the Moderator: Siân White is a scholar of modern British and Irish literature and Irish studies, with research focusing specifically on intimacy, gender, and narrative form. Her published work originally centered on early twentieth-century writers, including Virginia Woolf, James Joyce, and Elizabeth Bowen, but recently her interests have turned toward contemporary Irish women writers—Anna Burns, Eimear McBride, Emma Donohue, Claire Keegan, and Sally Rooney. Siân coedited The Edinburgh Companion to Irish Modernism (2021) and is a professor of English at James Madison University.
