Join us for the launch of Ben Lerner’s latest novel, The Topeka School. Deftly shifting perspectives and time periods, The Topeka School is the story of a family, its struggles and its strengths. It is also a riveting prehistory of the present: the collapse of public speech, the trolls and tyrants of the New Right, and the ongoing crisis of identity among white men.

Co-presented with Farrar, Straus and Giroux and Greenlight Bookstore, Lerner will be joined in conversation with Sally Rooney. Space is limited. Secure your spot today by ordering an advanced ticket. Advanced tickets come with a pre-signed copy of Ben Lerner’s The Topeka School (a $27 value). General admission tickets will be placed on sale closer to the event based on remaining availability.

Books by Ben Lerner and Sally Rooney will be available for sale at the event. A book signing with Ben Lerner will follow the conversation.

Ben Lerner was born in Topeka, Kansas, in 1979. He has received fellowships from the Fulbright, Guggenheim, and MacArthur Foundations, and is the author of the internationally acclaimed novels Leaving the Atocha Station and 10:04, and an essay, The Hatred of Poetry. His poetry collections include The Lichtenberg Figures, Angle of Yaw, and Mean Free Path. Lerner is a professor of English at Brooklyn College. His newest novel, The Topeka School, will be published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux on October 1.

Sally Rooney was born in the west of Ireland in 1991. Her work has appeared in The New Yorker, The New York Times, Granta, and The London Review of Books. Winner of the Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year Award in 2017, she is the author of Conversations with Friends and the editor of the Irish literary journal The Stinging Fly.