News

Author Dubus packs a punch


Published: May 27, 2009

MANCHESTER — An appearance by popular author Andre Dubus III recently packed the Community Center. More than 100 people attended a reading by the Newbury author, best known for his novel "House of Sand and Fog" which was made into a movie of the same name starring Ben Kingsley.

Dubus published "The Garden of Last Days," a novel of moral complexity with pre-Sept. 11 plot woven through the dilemma of contemporary isolation, loss of extended families, and wrenching issues of child-care facing many families today.

Never one to offer the simple plot or easy characters, Dubus shared how threads of an estranged relationship with his father, famed late author Andre Dubus II, had colored and impacted his own gritty urban youth as well as his current writing.

Readers can look forward to his latest work-in-progess; a memoir with stories rich and strong as any his fiction has crafted.

Dubus' appearance was sponsored by The Friends of the Library, an integral part of the programs and services offered at Manchester Public Library. The group's continued support sustains museum passes enjoyed by hundreds per year, library materials, and programs to delight and inform children and adults.