Join Dean Mark Oakley and best-selling author Michelle Lovric for an evening celebrating the release of The Puffin, her darkly comic standalone sequel to the acclaimed The Book of Human Skin. This event promises black humour and provocative exploration of faith, language and consciousness.
The Puffin is set in 19th-century Venice under Habsburg rule, the New World and the Lofoten Islands. The novel weaves together the fates of unforgettable characters—including a milliner who rewrites biographies through her hats, a poet with a crutch, a nobleman-spy obsessed with an assassin's target, and a mysterious stowaway puffin that triggers a chain of revolutionary plots, betrayals and shocks. Lovric fuses literary and historical fiction with subversive wit, exploring politics, faith and desire through comically sadistic twists.
The evening includes a conversation between Lovric and Dean Oakley on writing, faith and the craft of her distinctive fiction, followed by audience questions and a book signing.
