Anthony Marra, Author of the 'Best Book of the Year,' Coming to Bookshop Santa Cruz

When the owner of a bookshop tells you she's just read an amazing book and she expects the author to be a superstar, you have to listen.

That's what Casey Coonerty Protti told me the other day on Pacific Avenue. She owns Bookshop Santa Cruz and was raving about A Constellation of Vital Phenomena by Anthony Marra. 

She said she expects him to be the next great author...and this is only his first book. He's speaking and signing books at the Bookshop June 20 at 7:30 p.m.

Here's a bit off the store's blog:

If you love great fiction, don't miss this event! Those of us who have read Anthony Marra's debut novel were absolutely blown away by its beauty, eloquence, and maturity.

A resilient doctor risks everything to save the life of a hunted child in this majestic debut about love, loss, and the unexpected ties that bind us together. 

“A Constellation of Vital Phenomena is simply spectacular. Not sinceEverything is Illuminated have I read a first novel so ambitious and fully realized. If this is where Anthony Marra begins his career, I can't imagine how far he will go.” 
—Ann Patchett, New York Times bestselling author of State of Wonder and Bel Canto

“Remarkable and breathtaking, Anthony Marra’s A Constellation of Vital Phenomena is a spellbinding elegy for an overlooked land engulfed by an oft forgotten war. Set in the all-too-real Chechen conflict, Marra conjures fragile and heartfelt characters whose fates interrogate the very underpinnings of love and sacrifice.”
—Adam Johnson, Pulitzer Prize–winning author of The Orphan Master’s Son