The Winter Book Club with Ethan Hawke
Our Winter Book Club event featured award-winning actor and screenwriter Ethan Hawke for his novel, A Bright Ray of Darkness, moderated by Festival author and longtime podcast host Jen Sookfong Lee.
\nAs an accomplished actor, screenwriter, director and author, Ethan Hawke has commanded audiences for the screen, on the stage, and between the pages of some of this generation\u2019s most memorable and evocative stories. A Bright Ray of Darkness, this master storyteller\u2019s first novel in nearly twenty years, evokes the bracing whirlwinds of fame and fortune\u2013\u2013and the price we pay for each.
\nHawke\u2019s narrator is a young man on the cusp of greatness, disgusted with himself after the collapse of his marriage, and still hoping for a reconciliation that would allow him to forgive himself. As he clumsily, and sometimes hilariously, tries to manage the wreckage of his personal life, what saves him is theater and the challenge of performing the role of Hotspur in Henry IV as a debut Broadway actor. Searing, raw, and utterly transfixing, A Bright Ray of Darkness is a novel soaked in rage and sex, longing and despair; and ultimately becomes Hawke\u2019s passionate love letter to the world of theater.