Jennifer Egan at Central Library

Sarah-Clare Conlon, Literature Editor

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Jennifer Egan

15 November 2017

Always double check opening hours with the venue before making a special visit.

Author Jennifer Egan.
Author Jennifer Egan.
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Manchester Literature Festival might be over by November, but the hard-grafting team never stop, and this is one of the Bookend events they treat us to throughout the rest of the year – and what a treat!

A visit to these shores from A Visit From The Goon Squad author Jennifer Egan is a rare occasion, so we’re rather lucky to be able to welcome her to the Rainy City. She’s dropping in to talk to journalist Katie Popperwell, mainly about her forthcoming novel – her fifth – Manhattan Beach; set on the shores of the New York island near where she lives.

Hey, maybe she’ll chat about other stuff too. Winning the Pulitzer Prize, perhaps? Previous novels The Keep, Look At Me and her debut The Invisible Circus? Her short fiction collection Emerald City and Other Stories, or the stories she’s had published in The New Yorker, Harper’s, Granta and McSweeney’s? Writing for, among other publications, The New York Times Magazine? Studying at Cambridge, family life, gardening, dating Steve Jobs…

Honestly, we don’t see how she never has time to come see us.

But anyhow, her latest novel, Manhattan Beach, is Egan’s first foray into historical fiction, set during the Depression then the Second World War. Nineteen-year-old Anna Kerrigan works for the navy as a diver, checking the bottom of boats berthed on the East River, and, so says the blurb, “making her own way at a transformative time for women, in a Brooklyn populated by sailors and gangsters, tragic starlets and mysterious tycoons”. Egan started work on it five years ago, so there’s hope for us yet. Kirkus Reviews called it “haunting… Realistically detailed, poetically charged, and utterly satisfying: apparently there’s nothing Egan can’t do”.

Apparently not. Catch her while you can.

 

 

 

Where to go near Jennifer Egan at Central Library

St Peters Square Manchester
City Centre
St Peter’s Square

St Peter’s Square is a public space in Manchester – home to the city’s iconic library, town hall, Pankhurst statue, art gallery and famous Midland Hotel.

Manchester Art Gallery. Photo by Andrew Brooks
City Centre
Gallery
Manchester Art Gallery

The Charles Barry-designed, Grade I-listed Manchester Art Gallery is one of the city’s leading galleries and is back open for visitors once more.

Manchester
Restaurant
Ban Di Bul

Ban Di Bul is a longstanding Korean restaurant in the very centre of Manchester.

Chinatown
Hotel
The Alan

This high-end city-centre restaurant has an excellent afternoon tea option that more than matches up to the superb main menu.

Salut Wines
Chinatown
Bar or Pub
Salut Wines

Salut wines pride themselves in offering “wider horizons beyond the safe choices.” With 42 wines by the glass and a regularly changing selection of bottles in their Enomatic wine preservation machines (or  “wine jukebox,” as they’re colloquially known), this is one of be best bars in Manchester for exploring new vintages.

Manchester
Restaurant
Friska

Latest branch of Friska, the independent healthy fast food chain.

Manchester
Restaurant
Don Giovanni

Traditional Italian restaurant, serving everything from pizza to steak. All this in a large modern venue with floor-to-ceiling windows.

Chinatown
Restaurant
Manchester Art Gallery Cafe

Summery bakes, seasonal salads and fresh light meals at Manchester Art Gallery’s in-house café, courtesy of highly-regarded Head Chef Matthew Taylor.

City Centre
Tourist Attraction
Manchester Town Hall

Re-opening in 2024, Manchester Town Hall is a monument to Victorian Manchester’s ambition, and one of the city’s most-loved landmarks.

City Centre
Tourist Attraction
Albert Square

A public square in the heart of Manchester which plays hosts to festivals and major events. Home to the Albert Memorial and statues of Bishop James Fraser, John Bright, Oliver Heywood and William Ewart Gladstone.

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Deryn Rees-Jones. Credit Alison Dodd Photography
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