GREENWICH — New York Times best-selling author Claire Messud will discuss her recent book “The Burning Girl” at Greenwich Country Day School on January 30.
Organizing the event is the Greenwich chapter of Room to Read, a global nonprofit focused on literacy and girls’ education. All proceeds from the event will benefit Room to Read.
Messud’s novel tells the tale of a friendship between two girls straddling childhood’s imaginary worlds and painful adult reality. Her earlier work includes the novels “The Emperor’s Children” and “The Woman Upstairs.”
“Her books are events, and her elocution does not stammer,” wrote Dwight Garner of the New York Times in a 2017 review.
Messud is the recipient of Guggenheim and Radcliffe Fellowships and the Strauss Living Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. She teaches fiction writing at Harvard University.
Messud’s lecture will be followed by a question and answer session and a book signing. Tickets, now available online at www.give.roomtoread.org/RTRGreenwich2018, cost $25.
Founded in 2008, the Greenwich Chapter of Room to Read has hosted authors including physician-author Abraham Verghese, Pulitzer Prize winner Jennifer Egan, and “Orphan Train” author Christina Baker Kline. The Greenwich chapter has also arranged discussions with former British Prime Minister John Major, editor Tina Brown, business executive and Pulitzer Prize winner Sheryl WuDunn and actress Blake Lively, among others.
Room to Read works in low-income countries to foster literacy skills in early childhood and elementary education and ensure girls’ access to secondary schools. Since 2000, the nonprofit has benefited 11.6 million children across 20,000 communities in Asia and Africa and aims to reach 15 million children by 2020.
emunson@greenwichtime.com; Twitter: @emiliemunson