Illinois Libraries Present: Navigating Hallowed Ground with David Grann (virtual)

David Grann is an author and journalist whose bestselling titles include The Lost City of Z: A Tale of Deadly Obsession (2009), Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI (2017), and The Wager: A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny and Murder (2023). Grann’s work navigates bizarre, often violent historical episodes, to which Grann lends an immediacy that freshens their intrigue while considering them within their respective historical contexts. Register here: https://bit.ly/ILPS6DavidGrannRegistration In Grann’s most recent book, The Wager, the wreck of a British warship off the coast of Patagonia in the 1740s’ is retold by two different groups of survivors: one group is hailed as heroes who survived against the odds, while the other finds themselves painted as conniving mutineers. Much like Killers of the Flower Moon, where a then-developing FBI uncovers a vast conspiracy in what feels to the reader like “real time,” The Wager sees Grann utilize his historic vantage point to render a complex and gripping narrative, which pits the conventions of the past against those of the present to uncover the merits and blindsides of each. Moderator Daniel Zalewski, Executive Editor of The New Yorker, will join David Grann in conversation. A longtime editor and writer for the magazine, Zalewski has worked closely with many of today’s leading nonfiction authors, including Grann, helping shape some of the most compelling long-form journalism of the past two decades. This event is made possible by a grant from the Illinois State Library, a Department of the Secretary of State, using funds provided by the U.S. Institute of Museum and Library Services, under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act (LSTA).