David Guterson with Mary Ann Gwinn — 'Evelyn in Transit' (Lake Forest Park)

Third Place Books welcomes author David Guterson to our Lake Forest Park location for a conversation about his new book — a novel bridging Tibet and the American West to explore the human quest for transcendence. David will be joined in conversation by Mary Ann Gwinn, former Seattle Times book critic and current board member for the National Book Critics Circle.

Please note: David will be joining us both on Wednesday, Jan. 21 at our Lake Forest Park location and on Friday, Jan. 23 at our Ravenna location! This is the RSVP page for the 1/21 Lake Forest Park event. To sign up for the 1/23 Ravenna event, .

This event is free and open to the public. For important updates, RSVP is highly recommended in advance. This event will include a public signing and time for audience Q&A. Sustain our author series by purchasing a copy of the featured book!

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This event is free to attend. Registration is required in advance.

A crystalline short novel about defying expectations, hitting the road, and seeking the right way to live.

Radically open-minded, formidably strong, and unusually clear-eyed about herself and others, Evelyn Bednarz has always been a misfit. She’s easily bored, unsuited to life at school, asks odd questions about faith and time, and sees through conventions others take for granted. Seeking to be true to herself, she hitchhikes across the American West taking odd jobs.

In distant Tibet, another life unfolds as remote from Evelyn’s as can be: the life of a boy named Tsering, raised as a Buddhist monk in the mountains of Tibet, who eventually becomes a high lama.

And yet, their lives are strangely linked—as Evelyn discovers when a trio of Buddhist lamas show up at her door to announce that her five-year-old son Cliff is the seventh reincarnation of the illustrious Norbu Rinpoche, recently deceased. The lamas’ visit sets off a family crisis and a media firestorm over Cliff’s future.

Written in a spare, precise style of extraordinary beauty, full of surprising humor and luminosity, Evelyn in Transit delivers much-needed insight and compassion about humanity’s strivings for transcendence, and what it might mean to “live the right way.”

David Guterson is the author of several novels: the national best seller Snow Falling on Cedars; East of the Mountains; Our Lady of the Forest, a New York Times Notable Book and a Los Angeles Times Best Book of the Year; The Other; and Ed King. He is also the author of two story collections, two books of poetry, a memoir, and the work of nonfiction Family Matters: Why Homeschooling Makes Sense. The recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, he lives in Washington state.

Mary Ann Gwinn writes about books and authors for Kirkus Reviews, The Los Angeles Times and other publications. A Pulitzer-Prize winning journalist, she was the book editor of the Seattle Times from 1998 to 2017, a judge for the 2017 Pulitzer Prize in fiction and the co-host of Well Read, a national books and authors television show. She is currently on the board of the National Book Critics Circle. Mary Ann lives in West Seattle with her family.

Founded in 1998 in Lake Forest Park, Washington, Third Place Books is dedicated to the creation of a community around books and the ideas inside them. With locations in Lake Forest Park and Seattle's Ravenna and Seward Park neighborhoods, Third Place Books is proud to serve the entire Seattle metro area. Learn more about their event series at thirdplacebooks.com/events

Also check out other Arts events in Lake Forest Park, Literary Art events in Lake Forest Park.