In what promises to be an extraordinary evening of story, song, and conversation, Montana Public Radio will celebrate the publication of award-winning author and Missoula resident David James Duncan’s powerful new novel, Sun House (Little, Brown and Company). Friday, August 11, at the Wilma Theater. MTPR’s Lauren Korn (host of The Write Question) and Justin Angle (host of A New Angle) will preside over the festivities, and special musical guest American singer-songwriter Jeffrey Foucault will be on-hand to celebrate! Buy your tickets here.
Sixteen years in the making, Sun House is an epic comedy about love, spirit, and the quest for transcendence in an anything-but-transcendent America. In it, Duncan continues exploring the American search for meaning and love that he began in his acclaimed novels The River Why (Back Bay Books,1983) and The Brothers K (Dial Press, 1992). Set amid the gorgeous landscapes of the American West, the stunning new novel illuminates the contemporary world through the prisms of Eastern wisdom, cast-off ecstatic religious ideals, and the unpredictable, expansive yearnings of the human heart.
This spirited book launch will be presented in two segments, the first being an interview with David, conducted by Lauren and Justin (who share the 7 o’clock hour on MTPR every Thursday and have previously collaborated in other “crossover” conversations). In the second part of the program, David’s long-time friend, singer-songwriter Jeffrey Foucault, will join him on stage, where David will read passages from Sun House, which Jeffrey will “illustrate” with music he’ll improvise for the occasion.
Local bookseller Fact & Fiction will be selling pre-autographed copies of Sun House in the Wilma lobby.
About David James Duncan:
David James Duncan is the author of the classic novels The River Why and The Brothers K, the story collection River Teeth (Dial Press, 1996), the nonfiction collection and National Book Award finalist, My Story as Told by Water (Counterpoint LLC, 2002), the best-selling collection of “churchless sermons,” God Laughs & Plays (Triad Books, 2006), and, August 8th, 2023, the novel editor Michael Pietsch “will immodestly call David’s magnum opus” and writer William deBuys calls “one of the greatest imaginative achievements I’ve encountered in a lifetime of reading,” Sun House (Little, Brown and Company).
David’s work has won three Pacific Northwest Booksellers Awards, two Pushcart Prizes, a Lannan Fellowship, the Western States Book Award, inclusion in Best American Sports Writing, Best American Catholic Writing, two volumes of Best American Essays, five volumes of Best American Spiritual Writing, an honorary doctorate from University of Portland, the American Library Association’s 2004 Award for the Preservation of Intellectual Freedom (with co-author Wendell Berry), and other honors. David lives on a charming little trout stream in Missoula, Montana, in accord with his late friend Jim Harrison’s advice to finish his life disguised as a creek.
About Jeffrey Foucault:
In two decades on the road, Jeffrey Foucault has become one of the most distinctive voices in American music, refining a sound instantly recognizable for its simplicity and emotional power, a decidedly Midwestern amalgam of blues, country, rock’n’roll, and folk. He’s built a brick-and-mortar international touring career on multiple studio albums, countless miles, and general critical acclaim, being lauded for “Stark, literate songs that are as wide open as the landscape of his native Midwest” (The New Yorker), and described as “Quietly brilliant” (The Irish Times), while catching the ear of everyone from Van Dyke Parks to Greil Marcus, to Don Henley, who regularly covers Foucault in his live set.