Womrath Bookshop is excited to welcome the incredible local authors Jimin Han and Ben Purkert as they discuss their latest novels, crafting unlikeable narrators, and more. It's an event you won't want to miss! Audience Q&A and book signing are to follow.
This is a free event, but we hope you'll purchase the books from us to support our store. RSVP and we'll send you a discount code to purchase these incredible books before the event!
Register for November 14th
ABOUT THE APOLOGY
In South Korea, a 105-year-old woman receives a letter. Ten days later, she has been thrust into the afterlife, fighting to head off a curse that will otherwise devastate generations to come.
Jeonga Cha has always shouldered the burden of upholding the family name. When she sent her daughter-in-law to America to cover up an illegitimate birth, she was simply doing what was needed to preserve the reputations of her loved ones. How could she have known that decades later, this decision would return to haunt her—threatening to tear apart her bond with her beloved son, her relationship with her infuriatingly insolent sisters, and the future of the family she has worked so hard to protect?
Part ghost story and part family epic, The Apology is an incisive tale of sisterhood and diaspora, reaching back to the days of Japanese colonialism and the Korean War, and told through the singular voice of a defiant, funny, and unforgettable centenarian.
ABOUT JIMIN HAN
Jimin Han is the author of The Apology (Little, Brown and Co.), which was a 2023 Barnes and Noble Discover Pick; named a best book of the summer by the LA Times, Vanity Fair, Shondaland, Apple Books and more; and a Most Anticipated book by Literary Hub, The Millions, and San Francisco Chronicle. She is also the author of A Small Revolution. Additional writing of hers can be found at American Public Media's Weekend America, Poets & Writers, Catapult, and other media outlets. She teaches at The Writing Institute at Sarah Lawrence College, Pace University, and community writing centers. Born in Seoul, South Korea, she grew up in Providence, Rhode Island; Dayton, Ohio; and Jamestown, New York. Her work has been supported by the New York State Council on the Arts.
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ABOUT THE MEN CAN'T BE SAVED
Seth is a junior copywriter whose latest tagline just went viral. He’s the agency’s hottest new star, or at least he wants his coworker crush to think so. But while he’s busy drooling over his future corner office, the walls crumble around him.
When his job lets him go, he can’t let go of his job. Unfortunately, one former colleague can’t let him go either: Robert “Moon” McCloone, a skeezy on-the-rise exec better suited to a frat house than a boardroom. Seth tries to forget Moon and rediscover his spiritual self; he studies Kabbalah with an Orthodox rabbi by day while popping illegal prescription pills by night. But with each misstep, Seth strays farther from salvation—though he might get there, if he could only get out of his own way.
In his debut novel, Purkert incisively peels back the layers of the male ego, revealing what’s rotten and what might be redeemed. Brimming with wit, irreverence, and soul-searching, The Men Can’t Be Saved is a startlingly original examination of work, sex, addiction, religion, branding, and ourselves.
ABOUT BEN PURKERT
Ben Purkert’s debut novel, The Men Can’t Be Saved, came out from Abrams/Overlook in August 2023. His poetry collection, For the Love of Endings (Four Way Books, 2018), was named one of Adroit’s Best Poetry Books of the Year. His writing has appeared in The New Yorker, The Nation, Poetry, Ploughshares, Kenyon Review, Tin House, and he’s been featured by NPR, Esquire, and The Boston Globe. He holds degrees from Harvard and NYU, where he was a New York Times Fellow. He is the founding editor of Back Draft, a Guernica interview series focused on revision and the creative process. He teaches in the Sarah Lawrence College MFA program.
