Details
FREEDate(s)
Mon, Dec 9, 2019
6:30pm
Contact
Box Office
888-616-0274
boxoffice@irishartscenter.org
Phone hours:
10am-6pm, Monday-Friday
In person:
Opens 60 minutes before the performance on show days
Location
Irish Arts Center
553 West 51st Street
New York, NY 10019
Overview
IAC Book Club is a casual gathering of literature enthusiasts who meet in our gallery for lively banter and thoughtful discussion. This season we read a first novel—and a 20th: Last Ones Left Alive by Sarah Davis-Goff, set in a post-apocalyptic Ireland, and the highly anticipated Girl by Edna O'Brien.
Led by Rachael Gilkey, director of programming and education, the club is open to everyone—whether or not you've finished the book.
*Please note December 9 is a new date for this IAC Book Club. The original date was December 2.
LAST ONES LEFT ALIVE
“Written in sparse, affecting prose, and reminiscent of Cormac McCarthy’s The Road, this is a fiercely feminist, highly imaginative novel.”―The Guardian
“One hopes that this confident debut will mark the beginning of a long bibliography.”―Booklist, starred review
Orpen has only met two people in her fifteen years on Earth: her Mam, and Mam’s partner, Maeve. Living in isolation on a small island off the coast of Ireland, she spends her days training to ward off a threat she’s never met. Remember your just-in-cases. Beware tall buildings. Always have your knives.
As Orpen grows, so does her curiosity about the world beyond the safe circle of her family. She daydreams about rowing to the mainland, and the prospect of finding other survivors. The only thing holding her back are warnings about the flesh-eating menace that has overtaken the country: the skrake.
When disaster strikes, that dream becomes reality under circumstances Orpen never saw coming. Alone, pushing an unconscious Maeve in a wheelbarrow, she decides her last hope is abandoning the safety of the island and journeying across the country to reach the legendary banshees, the rumored all-female fighting force that battles the skrake. As Orpen races across the open road, she quickly begins to realize that the skrake aren’t the only danger lurking between the abandoned buildings and overgrown forests.
With the unrelenting pace of Mad Max: Fury Road and the spare lyricism of Sara Baume, Davis-Goff’s Last Ones Left Alive is a brilliant exploration of what makes us human.
Support for this program is also provided by the Charles Lawrence Keith & Clara Miller Foundation and The Irish Institute.
Our Supporters
Irish Arts Center programs are supported, in part, by government, foundation, and corporate partners including Culture Ireland, the agency for the promotion of Irish arts worldwide; public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, in partnership with the Mayor’s Office and the New York City Council; the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Kathy Hochul and the New York State Legislature; Howard Gilman Foundation; Tourism Ireland; the Jerome L. Greene Foundation; the Adrian Brinkerhoff Poetry Foundation; the Charina Endowment Fund; the Ireland Funds; the Shubert Foundation, Inc.; the Arnhold Foundation; the Fan Fox & Leslie R. Samuels Foundation; the Irish Institute of New York; the Society of the Friendly Sons of St. Patrick, New York; Northern Ireland Bureau; Invest NI; CIE Tours; M&T Bank; the Dead Rabbit; the Department of Foreign Affairs and the Consulate of Ireland in New York; and thousands of generous donors like you.
