WAMC LIVE RECORDING: Ayad Akhtar in conversation with Joe Donahue

A live WAMC recording with Ayad Akhtar and Joe Donahue on Akhtar’s new novel, The Radiance. Join us for a very special evening at Van Buren Hall in Kinderhook, where Joe Donahue, host of WAMC's The Book Show, will be in conversation with Kinderhook author Ayad Akhtar about his new novel, The Radiance, named a Most Anticipated Book of the Year by Time and highlighted as a best book of September by The New York Times and NPR. “Simply put, a work of genius.” —Abraham Verghese, author of The Covenant of Water The Book Show recording will begin at 6 p.m., followed by a book signing. Tickets include one copy of The Radiance. ABOUT THE RADIANCE When a hit-and-run shatters more than his body, a writer is plunged into a spiritual awakening he can’t tell from madness. In its grip, he’s drawn to a brilliant campus colleague by an uncanny pull, and into a scandal that threatens to destroy them both. What begins as a provocative portrait of academic and cultural warfare deepens into erotic entanglement, the exposure of a family secret, and the mystery surrounding the narrator’s accident—both the violence and its aftermath. Moving between rural America and Europe, Islam and Christianity, the intimate and the metaphysical, The Radiance is of our American moment and beyond it—asking not only what has broken, but what radiance remains. ABOUT THE AUTHOR Ayad Akhtar is a novelist and playwright. His work has been published and performed in over two dozen languages. He is the winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Drama, the Edith Wharton Citation of Merit for Fiction, and an award in literature from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, among other honors. Akhtar is the author of the novels American Dervish, a Kirkus Reviews Best Book of the Year, and Homeland Elegies, named one of the 10 Best Books of 2020 by The New York Times. He has also authored the plays McNeal, Junk, Disgraced, The Who & The What, and The Invisible Hand. Akhtar was named the New York State Author in 2021. ABOUT WAMC ON THE ROAD On the Road brings our microphones out of the soundproof booth and into the beating hearts of the communities WAMC serves. This exciting endeavor meets listeners beyond the airwaves, capturing the energy and authenticity of live, on-location events throughout WAMC’s seven-state listening region, from Plattsburgh to Pittsfield to Poughkeepsie. From libraries and colleges to theaters, town halls, festivals, and cultural landmarks, WAMC On the Road delivers in-depth interviews, panel discussions, live music, and entertainment programming—all recorded where the action happens.