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  • Out of Darkness with Denise Chong

    Library and Archives Canada, 395 Wellington Street

    Thursday Apr 18, 2024 at 7:00pm
     minutes
    Register

    Presented in partnership with Library and Archives Canada and Writer's Fest.

    Join us for the launch of Out of Darkness: Rumana Monzur's Journey through Betrayal, Tyranny and Abuse .

    From the bestselling author of The Concubine’s Children and The Girl in the Picture, it is a gripping story of a domestic assault that shocked the world, of the exercise of power and political influence, and of the Bangladeshi woman whose irrepressible spirit found light in sudden darkness.

    From the outside, Rumana seemed an unlikely victim of domestic abuse: married to a man of her own choosing and progressing in her career as a professor of international relations at Dhaka University. But in 2011, on return from graduate studies at the University of British Columbia, her husband attacked and blinded her in front of their young daughter. As Rumana's horrifying story garnered international headlines, and connections brought her to Vancouver in an attempt—ultimately futile—to restore her sight, her plight underscored the fact that there are no typical victims of intimate-partner violence.

    Denise Chong goes behind the headlines to reveal the devolution of a love story into a tale of tyranny behind closed doors, and the pursuit of justice that proved all the more elusive during the rise of social media. Out of Darkness tells a globe-spanning narrative of loyalty, perseverance and a woman’s determination to face the future and rebuild a life with meaning.

  • One eRead Canada 2024 – An evening with author Dimitri Nasrallah

    Library and Archives Canada, 395 Wellington Street

    Thursday Apr 25, 2024 at 7:00pm
     minutes
    Register

    On April 25, join author Dimitri Nasrallah and CBC’s Alan Neal for a conversation about the One eRead 2024 book: Hotline. Universal human themes - belonging, identity, isolation, and connection - make Hotline a perfect story to read and discuss with thousands of fellow Canadians as part of this year's One eRead /Un livrel program. Attendees will have the opportunity to participate in a question & answer session at the end of the discussion.  

    This is a hybrid event: the program is in-person, but we will also stream live on OPL's YouTube page. Registration is for the in-person portion of the event, an Eventbrite account is not required to register. A recording of the event will be provided on YouTube afterwards. A One eRead Canada French language event is being hosted by BAnQ in Montreal on April 23 at 7:00pm (livestream available). 

    The Canadian Urban Libraries Council (CULC) is excited to bring you Canada's largest bilingual book club, while highlighting the need for equitable access to digital books in Canadian libraries. Throughout April, public libraries across the country will participate in One eRead / Un livrel Canada, during which thousands of readers will borrow digital copies of Dimitri Nasrallah's novel Hotline from their public libraries with no waitlists.  

    Longlisted for the 2022 Giller Prize, and a Canada Reads selection in 2023, Hotline is the story of Muna, a mother starting a new life in Montreal after escaping devastation in war-torn Lebanon with her 8-year old son in the 1980s. Even as she struggles to find acceptance, healing, and purpose in a new city where she doesn't feel welcome, Muna finds herself providing solace and a sympathetic ear to fellow Montrealers via her job as a hotline operator for a weight-loss center.  

    Dimitri Nasrallah is the author of four novels. He was born in Lebanon in 1977, and lived in Kuwait, Greece, and Dubai before moving to Canada. His internationally acclaimed books have garnered nominations for CBC Canada Reads, the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award, and the Grand Prix du Livre de Montréal, and won the Hugh MacLennan Prize for Fiction and the McAuslan First Book Prize. He is the fiction editor at Véhicule Press. 

    Alan Neal is the award-winning host of the afternoon show All In A Day, heard 3 to 6 p.m. on CBC Radio One and CBC Listen. He has lived in Ottawa almost his entire life, and is known for his carefully researched interviews of authors and musicians.

     

    This program is presented by the Canadian Urban Libraries Council, Ottawa Public Library, Library and Archives Canada and the CBC.  

    Accessibility: 
    The Pellan Room at Library and Archives Canada is accessible via elevator. There are gendered washrooms with barrier free stalls on the main floor of the building. There are additional gendered washrooms available on the same floor as the event. There are no universal individual washrooms available at this venue.  

    Related booklist: If You Love Hotline - One eRead Canada 2024 | Ottawa Public Library | BiblioCommons

  • European Book Club - Greece

    Sunnyside

    Tuesday Jun 18, 2024 at 6:00pm
    120 minutes

    Drop-in program

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    Join us for the ultimate armchair travel around Europe. The European Book Club is offered in partnership with European Union National Institutes for Culture (EUNIC) in Ottawa to promote contemporary European authors and their works. A book title from an EU country is selected for discussion each month.

    Irena Karafilly will talk about her book "Arrested Song"

    Calliope Adham – young, strong-willed, and recently widowed – is schoolmistress in the village of Molyvos when Hitler’s army invades Greece in 1941. Well-read and linguistically gifted, she is recruited by the Germans to act as their liaison officer. It is the beginning of a personal and national saga that will last for several decades.