Spokane Public Library Presents: “Wild and Distant Seas” by Tara Karr Roberts

This is a Spokane Public Library event.

Thursday, March 21st at 6 pm at Central Library–Events A

(906 W Main Ave.)

About the event

Inland Northwest writer Tara Karr Roberts is already receiving major accolades her for debut novel, Wild and Distant Seas, which is inspired in part by Moby-Dick. Roberts will be joined in conversation with local author and Writing Education Specialist Sharma Shields. Auntie’s Books will sell signed copies.

About the book

A gorgeous debut, laced through with magic, following four generations of women as they seek to chart their own futures.

Evangeline Hussey has made a home for herself on Nantucket, though she knows she is still an outsider to the island’s small, close-knit community, one that by 1849 has started to feel the decline of a once-thriving whaling industry. Her husband, Hosea, and the life they built together, was once all she needed—but now Hosea is gone, lost at sea. Evangeline is only able to hold on to his inn, and her place on the island, by employing a curious gift to glimpse and re-form the recent memories of those who would cast her out.

One night, an idealistic sailor appears on her doorstep asking her to call him Ishmael. He seeks only a warm bed and a bowl of chowder, and yet suddenly, unsettlingly, her careful illusion begins to fracture. He soon sails away with Ahab to hunt an infamous white whale, and Evangeline is left to forge a new life from the pieces that remain.

Her choices ripple through generations, across continents, and into the depths of the sea, in a narrative that follows Evangeline and her descendants from mid-nineteenth century Nantucket to Boston, Brazil, Florence, and Idaho. Moving, beautifully written, and elegantly conceived, Wild and Distant Seas takes Moby-Dick as its starting point, but Tara Karr Roberts brings four remarkable women to life in a spellbinding epic all her own.

About the author

Tara Karr Roberts is a freelance writer, newspaper columnist, and journalism and English instructor at the University of Idaho. She is a lifelong Idahoan who grew up along the Pend Oreille River and now lives in Moscow, Idaho, with her family.

A note from the library

By attending library programs, you are agreeing to potentially appear in photos/videos taken at our locations that may be used in promotional materials including social media.

We strive to make events welcoming for people of all abilities. To request accommodations (i.e. hearing assistance, ASL requests, or other ADA inquiries), call the library at 509-444-5340.

**For inquiries please reach out to the Spokane Public Library system as Auntie’s is simply the bookseller for this event.**

(509) 444-5300