From AAARI/CUNY: A Matter of Rats, by Amitava Kumar, on Friday, April 25, 2014

Please join the Asian American / Asian Research Institute for a book talk, A Matter of Rats, by Amitava Kumar, on Friday, April 25, 2014, from 6PM to 8PM, at 25 West 43rd Street, 10th Floor, Room 1000, between 5th & 6th Avenues, Manhattan. This talk is free and open to the general public.

Amitava Kumar will read from his new non-fiction work, A Matter of Rats (Duke University Press, Spring 2013).

It is not only the past that lies in ruins in Patna, it is also the present. But that is not the only truth about the city that Amitava Kumar explores in this vivid, entertaining account of his home town. We accompany him on journeys and memories through many Patnas, the myriad cities locked within the city-the shabby reality of the present-day capital of Bihar; Pataliputra, the storied city of emperors; the dreamlike embodiment of the city in the minds and hearts of those who have escaped contemporary Patna’s confines. Full of fascinating observations and impressions, A Matter of Rats reveals a challenging and enduring city that exerts a lasting pull on all those who drift into its orbit.

Part memoir, part travelogue, Kumar’s ruminations on one of the world’s oldest cities, the capital of India’s poorest province, is also a meditation on how to write about place.

Amitava Kumar is a novelist, poet, journalist, filmmaker, and Helen D. Lockwood Professor of English at Vassar College. He is the author of A Foreigner Carrying in the Crook of His Arm a Tiny Bomband Nobody Does the Right Thing: A Novel, both also published by Duke University Press; Husband of a Fanatic: A Personal Journey through India, Pakistan, Love, and Hate, a New York Times “Editors’ Choice” selection; Bombay-London-New York, a New Statesman (UK) “Book of the Year” selection; and Passport Photos

To RSVP for this talk, please visit http://aaari.info/14-04-25Kumar.htm. Please be prepared to present proper identification when entering the building lobby. 

For those unable to attend, watch the live webcast of the talk on our website homepage, beginning at 6:15PM EST, or catch the post-live video and audio podcast online the following week. For updates and to view videos from past events, please visit www.aaari.info.