Am I Alone Here?

Peter Orner will read from and discuss his new non-fiction book Am I Alone Here? Notes on Living to Read and Reading to Live with Steve Almond, author of Against Football and co-host of NPR’s Dear Sugar Radio. 

About Am I Alone Here?:

“Stories, both my own and those I’ve taken to heart, make up whoever it is that I’ve become,” Peter Orner writes in this collection of essays about reading, writing, and living. Orner reads—and writes—everywhere he finds himself: a hospital cafeteria, a coffee shop in Albania, or a crowded bus in Haiti. Among the many writers Orner addresses are Isaac Babel and Zora Neale Hurston, both of whom told their truths and were silenced; Franz Kafka, who professed loneliness but craved connection; Robert Walser, who spent the last twenty-three years of his life in a Swiss insane asylum, “working” at being crazy; and Juan Rulfo, who practiced the difficult art of silence.

Praise:

“Orner, a distinguished fiction writer, appears here as a devoted book lover, inviting the reader to an intimate and friendly book group of two. . . . Readers will be delighted to join him, grab one of the stories he delves into, and enjoy his company.” —Publishers Weekly

“This book, thank god, defies any category. It’s partly an ode to reading, partly a memoir of Chicago and family, partly a travelogue, and often it’s all of these things in one four-page essay. Orner reads Cheever in Albania, thinks about Salinger in Haiti, salutes his father from a taqueria in San Francisco. Although some will want to dive in randomly and skip around, reading these exquisite essays in order allows the book to develop a momentum and cumulative power that sneaks up on you and knocks you back.” —Dave Eggers, author of Heroes of the Frontier