Heather O’Neill Launches The Capital of Dreams

September 12, 2024, 7:00-9:00 pm

Join Heather O’Neill, Drawn & Quarterly, and HarperCollins Canada to launch THE CAPITAL OF DREAMS, a breathtaking dark fairy tale of survival and betrayal from the vivid imagination of Heather O’Neill.

The event will take place at 7 pm on Thursday September 12th at La Sala Rossa, 4848 St Laurent Blvd.

The author will appear in conversation with Laurel Sprengelmeyer of Little Scream and there will be a book signing following the presentation.

Poster by Arizona O’Neill.

BUY TICKETS: https://www.venuepilot.co/events/101361/orders/new#/
BUY THE BOOK: https://shorturl.at/JRsZw

Fourteen-year-old Sofia Bottom lives in a small country that Europe has forgotten. But inside its borders, the old myths of trees that come alive and fairies who live among their roots have given way to an explosion of the arts and the consolations of philosophy. No one, from the clarinetists to the cabaret singers, is as revered as Sofia’s brilliant mother, the writer Clara Bottom. How can Sofia, with a tin ear and an enduring love of the old myths, ever hope to win her mother’s love?

When the country’s greatest enemy invades, and the Capital is under threat, at last Clara turns to her daughter. Sofia must smuggle her new manuscript to safety on the last train evacuating children from the city. But the train draws to a suspicious halt in the middle of a forest, and Sofia runs for her life, losing her mother’s most prized possession. Frightened and alone in a country at war, Sofia must find a way to reclaim what she has lost. On an epic journey through woods and razed towns, colliding with soldiers, survivors and other lost children, Sofia must make the choice between kindness and survival.

In this stunning dark fairy tale of a novel, Heather O’Neill reveals once again her mastery of language that is as delicious as cake and as serious as a gunshot.

Heather O’Neill is a novelist, short-story writer and essayist. Her most recent novel, When We Lost Our Heads, was a #1 national bestseller and a finalist for the Grand Prix du Livre de Montréal. Her previous works include The Lonely Hearts Hotel, which won the Paragraphe Hugh MacLennan Prize for Fiction and was longlisted for the Women’s Prize for Fiction and CBC’s Canada Reads, as well as Lullabies for Little Criminals, The Girl Who Was Saturday Night, and Daydreams of Angels, which were shortlisted for the Governor General’s Literary Award for Fiction, the Orange Prize for Fiction and the Scotiabank Giller Prize two years in a row. O’Neill has also won CBC’s Canada Reads and the Danuta Gleed Award. Born and raised in Montreal, she lives there today.

The Sala Rossa is located on the second floor (there are 38 steps total). There are gender neutral washrooms which are not wheelchair accessible. We have a Hearing Assistance System on the FM dial at 101.1 FM. Please email events@drawnandquarterly.com if you have any accessibility needs we can accommodate.