A twin’s search for his long-missing brother anchors one storyline In Dan Chaon’s “Await Your Reply.” The sudden loss of family sets other characters adrift. Struggles to find self and family underscore much of the novel’s action. Do you have a similar story to tell?
Perhaps you took steps to find a birth parent or one of your grandparents was part of the orphan train movement that relocated abandoned and homeless children throughout the United States. Maybe you discovered rich details about your ancestors that brought a blurry family past into focus. Share tales of your personal lost and found with other participants in this year’s One Read program by leaving a comment.
Columbia Daily Tribune features editor Lynn Israel interviewed “Await Your Reply” author Dan Chaon. Here, Chaon shares his thoughts about being chosen as this year’s One Read book.
Tribune: You received so many top honors and awards for your writing, but what are your thoughts about the selection of your book for a One Read program in Columbia?
Chaon: I am really interested in the One Read programs that have sprung up all over the country because I do think there is something about having that social aspect to reading that can be really rewarding. The media has become so fractured — and that’s a good thing because people can find whatever they want — but we don’t have that many water cooler moments anymore, we don’t have that many shared things that we can sit down and talk about and argue about, and I guess that the One Read program really allows people to re-experience what that’s like. I guess outside of “Lost,” the last time that happened for me I don’t know, but it is so fun to have something that everyone has an opinion about and everybody is able to share the conversation. We need more of that.
Read the rest of the interview.
About the Author
Dan Chaon is the acclaimed author of “You Remind Me of Me,” which was named one of the best books of the year by The Washington Post, Chicago Tribune, San Francisco Chronicle, The Christian Science Monitor, and Entertainment Weekly, among other publications. Ballantine has also published two collections of his short stories: “Fitting Ends” and “Among the Missing,” which was a finalist for the 2001 National Book Award.
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Each winter, the public submits suggestions for next year’s book. In January, a panel of community members reviews the suggestions, narrowing that list down to 10 titles, and then chooses two or three books to present for a public vote.
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Posted on November 1, 2009
About the Author
Andrea Barrett did not start out to be a fiction writer; she wanted to be a scientist. “I really wanted to be Darwin in a skirt wandering through the Galapagos or the Amazon naming birds and trees,” she says. Instead, Barrett has translated her fascination with science and the natural world into award-winning novels and short stories. Barrett is especially drawn to the history of exploration and the suffering men and women were willing to endure in the pursuit of knowledge. The “Voyage of the Narwhal” (1998) tells of a harrowing expedition to the Arctic, while in the title story from “Ship Fever,” a doctor struggles through a typhus epidemic.
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