Writers from the Edge Reading Series as part of the Creative Writing and Social Action program in the School of Humanities and Communication at California State University Monterey Bay is partnering with the Otter Cross Cultural Center, the English Department at Cabrillo College, the Tanimura & Antle Family Memorial Library, the John Steinbeck Library in Salinas, Out of Our Minds on KKUP and Old Capitol Books to bring novelist Peter Nathaniel Malae to the Monterey Bay area to release his fourth book: “Son of Amity” from Oregon State University Press.
What: Peter Nathaniel Malae at Old Capitol Books
When: Thursday 15 November, 6pm
Where: Old Capitol Books, 559 Tyler St, downtown Monterey
Peter Nathaniel Malae is the author of the forthcoming novel, SON OF AMITY (’18); the novels, OUR FRAIL BLOOD (’13) and WHAT WE ARE (’10), a New York Times Editor’s Choice, San Francisco Foundation’s Joseph Henry Jackson Award winner and Pacific Northwest Booksellers finalist; the story collection, TEACH THE FREE MAN (’07), a New York Public Library’s Young Lions Award finalist, Glasgow Prize finalist and Story Prize notable book; and the play, THE QUESTION (’15), an Oregon Literary Arts Fellowship winner. His prose has appeared in Cimarron Review, Glimmer Train, Missouri Review, North Dakota Quarterly, South Carolina Review, South Dakota Review, Southwest Review, Witness, ZYZZYVA, and other presses. A former John Steinbeck, Arts Council Silicon Valley and MacDowell Colony Fellow, Malae lives in the Pacific Northwest.
Son of Amity
Three lives on the verge of ruin intersect in the small Oregon town of Amity: Pika, a half-Samoan ex-con from California, seeks to deliver justice to his sister’s rapist; Michael, a five-tour Iraq War Marine, faces the cracked mirror of his own embattled soul; and Sissy, a recent convert to Catholicism, must resist the lure of ruthless self-judgment and discover what love is. Determined to escape the past, these characters find themselves sharing the same torn-down house, bordering tweaker poverty and bucolic wine country.
Violence and penance, family and legacy, recidivism and post-traumatic stress disorder linger with the heavy rain of desperation. At the center of this storm is five-year old Benji, whose wide-eyed energy and open hearted faith could show all of them how to still be saved. In this unforgettable tale, award-winning author Peter Nathaniel Malae explores the depths of human pain and trauma with cultural authority. Son of Amity is a novel whose voices cry out with truth and vulnerability, never betraying that slight tilt toward hope needed to make the long, hard trek to tomorrow.
Praise for “Son of Amity”
“From the farthest, wettest corner of war-damaged America, Peter Nathaniel Malae brings us the story of a family bound by a shared history of violence, and liberated by the miracle of shared mercy. Written with
immense intellect and swagger, Son of Amity imbues the street-level realities of our times—in our cities,
towns, prisons, and psyches—with the power of myth.”
—Jon Raymond, author of Freebird and The Half-Life
Old Capitol Books 