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Event
Erik Larson at Boswell Book Company
Please join us for a ticketed event with the master of narrative nonfiction, Erik Larson, who will discuss and sign copies of his latest marvelously researched book, Dead Wake: The Last Crossing of the Lusitania. Tickets are $30, include admission for one and an autographed hardcover of Dead Wake, and are available on Brown Paper Tickets (www.brownpapertickets.com). A $22 gift card is available in lieu of the book on event night only.
On May 1, 1915, the Lusitania, a luxury ocean liner as richly appointed as an English country house sailed out of New York, bound for Liverpool, carrying a record number of children and infants. The passengers were anxious. Germany had declared the seas around Britain to be a war zone, and for months, its U-boats had brought terror to the North Atlantic. But the Lusitania was one of the era's great transatlantic "Greyhounds" and her captain, William Thomas Turner, placed tremendous faith in the gentlemanly strictures of warfare that for a century had kept civilian ships safe from attack. He knew, moreover, that his shipthe fastest then in servicecould outrun any threat. Germany, however, was determined to change the rules of the game, and Walther Schwieger, the captain of Unterseeboot-20, was happy to oblige. Meanwhile, an ultra-secret British intelligence unit tracked Schwieger's U-boat, but told no one. As U-20 and the Lusitania made their way toward Liverpool, an array of forces both grand and achingly smallhubris, a chance fog, a closely guarded secret, and moreall converged to produce one of the great disasters of history.
It is a story that many of us think we know but don't, and Erik Larson tells it thrillingly in Dead Wake: The Last Crossing of the Lusitania, switching between hunter and hunted while painting a larger portrait of America at the height of the Progressive Era. Full of glamour, mystery, and real-life suspense, Dead Wake brings to life a cast of evocative characters, from famed Boston bookseller, Charles Lauriat, to pioneering female architect, Theodate Pope Riddle, to President Wilson, a man lost to grief, dreading the widening war but also captivated by the prospect of new love. Gripping and important, Dead Wake captures the sheer drama and emotional power of a disaster that helped place America on the road to war.
About the Author: Erik Larson is the author of four national bestsellers: In the Garden of Beasts, Thunderstruck, The Devil in the White City, and Isaac's Storm, which have collectively sold more than 5.5 million copies. His books have been published in fourteen countries.
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LocationBoswell Book Company (View)
2559 N. Downer Ave.
Milwaukee, WI 53211
United States
Categories
Dog Friendly: No |
Non-Smoking: Yes! |
Wheelchair Accessible: Yes! |
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