John Smolens to Read from his new novel,

The Anarchist, at NMU

Author and NMU professor John Smolens will be reading from his new novel The Anarchist, Wednesday, December 9, at 7:30 at the Women's Federated Clubhouse, 104 W. Ridge St., Marquette.

Smolens is the author of five novels, including Cold, The Invisible World, and Fire Point. He lives in Marquette.

"John Smolens has written a historical novel with the quick-beating heart of a thriller.  Written in crisp, cinematic prose, The Anarchist has echoes of the best noir, while at the same time invoking a terrifyingly empathetic portrait of the young assassin Leon Czolgosz, who, in Smolens' hands, has a kind of Dostoyevskian complexity. Before reading this book, the McKinley assassination existed in my mind as only a dry fact. The Anarchist has brought these events to rich, bloody, teeming life. "
    -- Dan Chaon, author of Await Your Reply

"Smolens has written an intelligent, often troubling warning disguised as a first-rate thriller, as though Sinclair Lewis has fused with Alan Furst."
    -- Tom Bissell, author of The Father of All Things

"Fiction so shapely and finely wrought: dark history inexorably bound to repeat itself -- The Anarchist is another gem from a master of the storyteller's arts."
    -- Thomas Lynch, author of The Undertaking

For more information, contact Rebecca Johns, Director of the NMU Visiting Writers’ Program, at 227-1795.