Tuesday May 07, 2024
7:00 pm - 9:00 pm
POWERHOUSE Arena
28 Adams Street (Corner of Adams & Water Street across from the Archway)
Brooklyn , NY
11201
Get Tickets Here!
About the Book.
A timely, beautifully observed debut novel set in near future New York about a young woman who finds herself tangled in a secret Government project combating loneliness.
Lee knows she’s the best. A professor favorite and fellowship winner, there’s no doubt she’ll land one of the coveted jobs at a Big Five corporation. So when, upon graduating, Lee is instead assigned to an unknown company in the dead city of New York, her life goals are completely upended.In this new role, Lee’s task is to gather enough research to train an AI how to be a friend. She begins online and by studying the social circle of her clueless, outgoing roommate Veronika. But when the company reveals it’s part of a classified government mission to solve loneliness-an emotion erased from society’s lexicon decades ago-Lee’s determination to prove herself kicks into overdrive, and she begins chasing bolder and more dangerous experiences to provide data for the AI.How far will Lee go to teach the algorithm? As the mysterious affliction spreads, Lee must decide what she’s willing to give up for success and, along the way, learn what it means to be a true friend.Loneliness & Company is an enchanting, gorgeously written novel about finding meaning and connection in a world beset by isolation.
About the Moderator.
Molly McGhee is from a cluster of unincorporated towns outside of Nashville, Tennessee. She completed her M.F.A. in fiction at Columbia University where she teaches in the undergraduate creative writing department. She has worked in the editorial departments of McSweeney’s, The Believer, NOON, and Farrar, Straus and Giroux, and Tor. Currently living in Brooklyn, her work has appeared in The Paris Review. Her debut novel, JONATHAN ABERNATHY YOU ARE KIND, is forthcoming from Astra House in 2023.