Wednesday, June 3 at Theatre Hill, St. John’s
Join us for this year’s Lawnya Vawnya collaboration: a fantastic evening with Booker Prize nominee Maria Reva, as she discusses her award-winning, bestselling first novel, ENDLING, with Riddle Fence Executive Director Elisabeth de Mariaffi.
A darkly comic novel, ENDLING draws on Reva’s own experiences as a Ukrainian expat tracking her family’s delicate dance of survival behind enemy lines. As fiction and reality collide on the page, she probes the hard truths of war: What stories must we tell ourselves to survive? Once shattered, can our sense of normalcy and security ever be restored?
Set in Ukraine, an eccentric scientist breeding rare snails crosses paths with sisters posing as members of the for-profit marriage industry to find their activist mother. As Russia invades, they embark on a wild journey with a van-load of kidnapped bachelors and a last-of-its-kind snail.
Called “startling and ambitious” by the New York Times, and “brilliant and heartstopping” by the LA Times, ENDLING explores survival, love, and the impact of war.
This is going to be an unforgettable night, and a real treat for St. John’s.
Featuring music by Kubasonics.
Books will be available for sale; cash bar.
Tickets: $15. Seats are limited! Reserve yours today.
This event is supported by the Canada Council for the Arts Public Outreach Program. We’re grateful to Lawnya Vawnya for partnering with us every June!
MARIA REVA was born in Ukraine and grew up in Canada. Her fiction has appeared in The Atlantic, McSweeney’s, The Best American Short Stories, and elsewhere, earning a National Magazine Award. She also works as an opera librettist.
ELISABETH DE MARIAFFI is the author of four books, most recently the NLBA Fiction Prize winner, The Retreat. She lives in St. John’s, where she is the Executive Director at Riddle Fence.
KUBASONICS are arguably Newfoundland’s finest Ukrainian band. This award winning group combines top-flight musicianship spiced with quirky humour, a dizzying array of exotic traditional instruments, and an eclectic high-energy stage show. And with splashes of traditional Newfoundland tunes as an important part of their hybrid musical mix, a Kubasonics show is an experience not soon to be forgotten.