States of Emergency

The novelist will be joined by Writers & Books Artistic Director, Tyler Barton 

In the summer of 2015, a young American and his French wife undergo fertility treatment in Paris. They settle in to wait for the results as a heatwave paralyzes the city. As the heat rises, a state of emergency is declared and tempers flare, leaving cracks in the foundation of their marriage. In the months that follow, they find themselves navigating a confluence of world crises and historical forces that affect each in ways the other struggles to understand. Against this backdrop of existential dread, the fissures in their marriage widen as they confront their everyday apocalypse. An ongoing conversation begins: one that moves backward and forward in time, swings between hope and despair, dry laughter and hard fury, all in an effort toward reconciliation. How will their conflicting ideas about how to build a life together—how to love each other—survive in the face of a future that’s collapsing before their eyes?

“How did Chris Knapp manage to write such seamless surges of past and present; the sense of history crashing down on everyday life; such sadness and startling humor? —Ayşegül Savaş, author of The Anthropologists

Chris Knapp’s work has appeared in The Paris Review, n+1, Granta, and the New England Review, among others. He earned an MFA in fiction at the University of Virginia, and an MA in journalism and international affairs from SciencesPo in Paris. States of Emergency is his first novel.

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