BookPeople welcomes Javier Fuentes in conversation with Antonio Ruiz-Camacho to celebrate the release of Countries of Origin. The event will include an author discussion, a reading, an audience Q&A, and a signing line.
EVENT INFO:
- This event is free and open to the public.
- Start time: 7:00 P.M.
- Run time: 45-60 minutes, followed by a signing line.
- Location: The Second Floor of BookPeople
- The author will be signing copies of their book after the speaking portion of the event.
- To get a book signed, a copy of the event book or an item of equal value must be purchased from BookPeople.
EVENT GUIDELINES:
- Seating will be on a first-come, first-served basis.
- There will not be a live stream or recording available.
- BookPeople reserves the right to cancel or postpone this event if necessary.
- If you have any other questions, please email us at online@bookpeople.com
ABOUT COUNTRIES OF ORIGIN:
In this stunning debut, Javier Fuentes chronicles a tumultuous, passionate love affair between two young men from vastly different worlds during one, extraordinary summer in Spain, in what is ultimately a meditation on identity, class, belonging and desire
It is 2007, in New York where Demetrio, 24, is a celebrated pastry chef at the French restaurant, Le Bourrelet. It will be his seventh year as their pâtissier and the chef-owner, stern, but paternal feels he should move on. When Demetrio is offered a position as Head of Pastries at a Michelin-starred restaurant, he wants nothing more than to accept it. Undocumented, he is missing one crucial thing: papers. Terrified he will be found out, he makes the difficult decision of voluntary departure to permanently return to his homeland which he has not seen since he was a small child. This will mean leaving the only family he knows, his beloved uncle Chus, who brought him up and who he still lives with. On his flight to Madrid, he sits next to the handsome, playful and sensitive Jacobo, a student at NYU going home to his aristocratic, fascist family and there is an instant, unacknowledged electricity between them.
In dimly lit bars in Madrid and on pebbled beaches by the sea far outside the city, Demetrio and Jacobo’s subtle but intense relationship unfolds. Demetrio is tortured by a fear of true intimacy, and anxiety about their class difference. Both are struggling with their identities and sexuality and they avoid their true feelings and deep passion until a family tragedy sets them on a collision course back into one another’s lives. Powerfully sensual, and dramatic, Countries of Origin is a story which immerses you in the intense emotions and conflicts of love and loss.
ABOUT JAVIER FUENTES:
JAVIER FUENTES is a Spanish American writer, a 2018 Lambda Literary Fellow, who earned an MFA in Fiction from Columbia University where he was a teaching fellow. Born in Barcelona, he lives in New York.
ABOUT ANTONIO RUIZ-CAMACHO:
Antonio Ruiz-Camacho’s debut collection Barefoot Dogs (Scribner) won the Jesse H. Jones Award for Best Work of Fiction, was a Kirkus Reviews and San Francisco Chronicle Best Book of 2015, and a Best Book of the Decade by Texas Observer. A National Magazine Award finalist, his work has appeared in The New York Times, Salon, Texas Monthly, Texas Highways and elsewhere. Born and raised in Toluca, Mexico, he moved to the U.S. at the age of 31 and began to write in English at 35. He earned his M.F.A. from UT Austin’s New Writers Project and was a Knight Journalism Fellow at Stanford University. He’s also been awarded fellowships from the Dobie Paisano Fellowship Program, Yaddo, Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference and Sewanee Writers’ Conference.
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