As part of the NEA Big Read, The Manchester City Library will host NH Humanities Scholar Damian Costello, who will lead a book discussion of The Bear by Andrew Krivak on Thursday, October 26th at 6:30 p.m. in the library Winchell Room.

In an Edenic future, a girl and her father live close to the land in the shadow of a lone mountain. They possess a few remnants of civilization: some books, a pane of glass, a set of flint and steel, a comb. The father teaches the girl how to fish and hunt, the secrets of the seasons and the stars. He is preparing her for an adulthood in harmony with nature, for they are the last of humankind. But when the girl finds herself alone in an unknown landscape, it is a bear that will lead her back home through a vast wilderness that offers the greatest lessons of all, if she can only learn to listen. 

A cautionary tale of human fragility, of love and loss, The Bear is a stunning tribute to the beauty of nature’s dominion and explores powerful themes about the importance of intergenerational storytelling, our complicated relationship with the environment, and how to prepare for an unknown future.

NEA Big Read is a program of the National Endowment for the Arts in partnership with Arts Midwest. For more information, visit arts.gov/neabigread.

Learn more about the Big Read at https://www.nhhumanities.org/bigread

NH Humanities Scholar Damian Costello received his Ph.D. in theological studies from the University of Dayton and specializes in the intersection of Catholic theology, Indigenous spiritual traditions and colonial history.

Call Steve Viggiano at 603-624-6550 x7623 or email sviggiano@manchesternh.gov for more information.