Author Event with Mark Lisac

Join local author and veteran Alberta journalist Mark Lisac for a reading and signing of his latest book, The Carbon Eaters

“Unbelievable,” Painter said. “Is this place for real?” Reinhold replied, “Totally believable. You haven’t been here long enough to understand the local thought process.” A massive black space ship is hovering over a thinly populated region of southern Alberta. Its only apparent interest? Eating coal. It makes no attempts to communicate and leaves people alone. It just sends drones to grind away at thin seams of coal in the side of a deep river valley. The federal government sends several top experts to figure out what is happening. Franklin Hattori, a cultural anthropologist on the edge of a mental breakdown, is surprised when he’s called to join the expedition. The reason for his inclusion is initially as transparent to him as that ship that looks like an ebony ink blot in the sky, but he’s not one to turn down an opportunity of a lifetime. Soon, he finds himself on a team with a chemist, a National Defence liaison officer, a recently returned astronaut, a political troubleshooter still coping with trauma suffered in Lisac’s earlier novel Where the Bodies Lie, and an Ottawa lawyer whom Hattori knows well. After they start to investigate, the ambiguity of their situation quickly sinks in. Will they learn more about the mysterious visitors, about the strange province where they have been sent to work, or about themselves? It’s magic realism, and a nuanced, tragi-comic satire.

Mark will join us from 2:00 to 3:00