8th Annual Mayor’s Book Club to
Keep Austin Reading Launches
with a Debut Novel by an Iranian Author
Austin, Texas (February 19, 2009)—The eighth annual selection of the "Mayor's Book Club" was announced today by Mayor Will Wynn at a press conference at City Hall in downtown Austin. The book selected by the mayor for the "Keep Austin Reading" campaign is The Septembers of Shiraz, by Dalia Sofer. The novel is a debut novel by Dalia Sofer and is based on her own childhood of growing up in Iran during the Iranian revolution and having to flee the country after their father was imprisoned.
The Septembers of Shiraz is a fascinating story of one family's unique struggles rooted within the context of a radically changing Iran. Their Judaism has marked them with imminent persecution during the Iranian Revolution. The story vascillates between the domestic struggles of the family members remaining in Iran and the immigrant experience of the family's son studying in New York. Sofer raises numerous universal questions: Do we flee or fight when faced with adversity? How do we adapt to foreign surroundings? How does a family stay together?
This book is a powerful first book by Sofer and is a New York Times Notable Book of the Year. The book can be checked out at all Austin Public Library locations and purchased at local bookstores.
The Library, in conjunction with the Mayor's office and the University of Texas Humanities Institute, launches its annual citywide reading campaign to develop a community experience through reading and discussion of a shared book. We invite all of Austin to read the book in February and March and then join together in special events and programs in April 2009. At the culmination of the reading campaign, we will host the award-winning author in a special event on Friday, April 24, 2009 at 6 p.m. at City Hall, 301 W. 2nd Street.
Partners of the citywide reading program are the City of Austin, the University of Texas Humanities Institute, and area bookstores. For additional information about the Mayor's Book Club, call (512) 974-7400 or visit www.cityofaustin.org/library.
Visit our previous Mayor's Book Club resource guides online:
2008: A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier by Ishmael Beah
2007: Around The Bloc by Stephanie Elizondo Griest
2006: The Devil's Highway by Luis Alberto Urrea
2005: Writing Austin's Lives by Metro Austin Residents
2004: All the Pretty Horses by Cormac McCarthy
2003: Holes by Louis Sachar
2002: Bless Me, Ultima by Rudolfo Anaya
To view what other cities across the country are reading visit
The Center for the Book
