Thursday, November 14 at 5:30 p.m., the Oakland Literacy Council invites you to Ex Libris, the 35th annual dinner benefit for adult learners in Oakland County. This event features a cocktail hour, dinner, and keynote presentations by national authors at The Village Club (190 E Long Lake Rd, Bloomfield Hills, MI 48304). This year’s keynote speaker is New York Times bestselling author Angie Kim.
Join us for an unforgettable evening as we celebrate 40 years of service powered by amazing volunteers! Enjoy delicious food, great company, and inspiring stories—all to support adult learners in Oakland County! Books will be available to purchase courtesy of Book Beat.
Individual and group tickets are available at the Oakland Literacy Council website.
Happiness Falls
Hogarth Press
2024
“We didn’t call the police right away.” Those are the electric first words of this extraordinary novel about a biracial Korean American family in Virginia whose lives are upended when their beloved father and husband goes missing.
Mia, the irreverent, hyperanalytical twenty-year-old daughter, has an explanation for everything—which is why she isn’t initially concerned when her father and younger brother Eugene don’t return from a walk in a nearby park. They must have lost their phone. Or stopped for an errand somewhere. But by the time Mia’s brother runs through the front door bloody and alone, it becomes clear that the father in this tight-knit family is missing and the only witness is Eugene, who has the rare genetic condition Angelman syndrome and cannot speak.
What follows is both a ticking-clock investigation into the whereabouts of a father and an emotionally rich portrait of a family whose most personal secrets just may be at the heart of his disappearance. Full of shocking twists and fascinating questions of love, language, and human connection, Happiness Falls is a mystery, a family drama, and a novel of profound philosophical inquiry. With all the powerful storytelling she brought to her award-winning debut Miracle Creek, Angie Kim turns the missing person story into something wholly original, creating an indelible tale of a family who must go to remarkable lengths to truly understand each other.
“This is a story with so many twists and turns I was riveted through the last page.”—Jodi Picoult
“A brilliant, satisfying, compassionate mystery that is as much about language and storytelling as it is about a missing father. I loved this book.”–Gabrielle Zevin, author of Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow
“I fell in love with the fascinating, brilliant family at the center of this riveting book.”–Ann Napolitano, author of Hello Beautiful
Miracle Creek
Picador
2020
In a small town in Virginia, a group of strangers come together at a special treatment center, where they enter the Miracle Submarine, an experimental oxygen chamber that may cure a range of conditions—from infertility to autism. Then the chamber explodes and two people die. Who is responsible? Was it the exhausted mother of a patient? The owners, hoping to cash in on a big insurance payment and send their daughter to college? Could it have been a protestor, trying to prove that the treatment isn’t safe? An ensuing murder trial uncovers unimaginable secrets and lies.
Drawing on the author’s own experiences—as a former trial lawyer, Korean American immigrant, and mother of a real-life “submarine” patient—Miracle Creek pieces together the tense atmosphere of a courtroom drama and the complexities of family life. It’s a powerful debut from an unforgettable new voice.
“[A] thought-provoking journey of ideas [and] a fascinating study of the malleability of truth in the courtroom…Miracle Creek is a brave novel that challenges assumptions of reality.”—Krys Lee, The New York Times Book Review
“Gripping . . . Although the plot of Miracle Creek is propelled by a murder trial . . . the book shines when the characters involved open up about what it’s like to make intense sacrifices for the people they love. From the immigrants who ran the facility to the single mother of the child who was killed, Kim makes a case for compassion that surpasses the suspense of her page-turner.”—Annabel Gutterman, Time Magazine
Angie Kim moved as a preteen from Seoul, South Korea, to the suburbs of Baltimore. After graduating from Interlochen Arts Academy, she studied philosophy at Stanford University and attended Harvard Law School, where she was an editor of the Harvard Law Review.
Her debut novel, Miracle Creek, won the Edgar Award and the ITW Thriller Award, and was named one of the 100 best mysteries and thrillers of all time by Time, and one of the best books of the year by Time, The Washington Post, Kirkus Reviews, and the Today show. Happiness Falls, her second novel, was an instant New York Times bestseller and a book club pick for Good Morning America, Barnes & Noble, Belletrist, and Book of the Month Club.