David Bezmozgis

David Bezmozgis is the author of our first story, "The Train of Their Departure".  The story was first published in the New Yorker's 20 under 40 issue in 2010.  Bezmozgis published his first book, Natasha and Other Stories in 2004.   He received the Toronto Book Award and the Commonwealth Writer's Prize for First Book for Natasha.  If you want to read the title story, "Natasha", it is included in the Best American Short Stories 2005.

Bezmozgis was born in Riga, Latvia, in 1977.  He immigrated with his parents to Toronto in 1980.  He attended McGill University, receiving a BA in English Literature, and the University of California's School of Cinema-Television, receiving an MFA.  His first feature film, Victoria Day, was released in 2009. 

I looked for this story online.  If you are a New Yorker subscriber, you can read it here.  Otherwise, you can check out a copy of the book at the library.

The Free World (2011) is his first novel.

New York Times article about the 20 Under 40 list.

Welcome!

The library is sponsoring an online book discussion group.   We will choose novels or short stories to read and post discussion questions.  This is where you come in.  Read the books and post your comments.  The library will have extra copies of the books being read.

In September, we will discuss three stories from the 20 Under 40  collection of stories from The New Yorker.  This is collection was carefully selected by the New Yorker's fiction editors in 2010.  All of the authors were under forty at that time. All of the stories appeared in the New Yorker Magazine.

The three stories are:

• The Train of Their Departure by David Bezmozgis (begins p.73)
• An Arranged Marriage by Nell Freudenberger (begins p.147)
• What You Do Out Here, When You're Alone by Philipp Meyer (begins p.237)

In the coming days & weeks, some background information about the authors will be posted.  We will talk about The Train of Their Departure first, beginning approximately September 5, and move on from there.

Check catalog for book