Chuckanut Radio Hour Featuring Adrianne Harun

Location: Firehouse Arts & Events Center Bellingham

Address: 1314 Harris Avenue, Bellingham, WA 98225

Date: 21 May

Dive into isolated PNW mill town Humtown as the Cuban Missile Crisis eases in this novel from Port Townsend author Adrianne Harun! In On the Way to the End of the World, it's 1963, and an eclectic group of characters embark on President Kennedy’s ambitious walking challenge. Her award-winning books include Catch, Release; The King of Limbo; and A Man Came Out of a Door in the Mountain.

Adrianne will be interviewed by local author Ted O'Connell of the band Cape Flattery and author of K: A Novel.

Doors open and music begins at 6:30pm!

Musical Guest: Cape Flattery

cape: (1) a sleeveless cloak; (2) a headland or promontory; (3) a musical group or arrangement that gains structural integrity by use of guest musicians

Spaces are limited and REGISTRATION IS REQUIRED to secure your spot so don't delay.*

As the Cuban Missile Crisis eases, President Kennedy is casting around for a demonstration of American prowess when one of his Cabinet unearths an old mandate that US Marines be fit enough to walk fifty miles in twenty hours. Perfect! Kennedy decides to throw down the gauntlet to "today's Marines," but before he knows it, he's sparked a wild fad. The entire country has answered the call, it seems, and for a few crazed winter weeks, masses of Americans will embark on their own arduous Big Walks—the "JFK 50-Milers."

Yet in tiny Humtown—an isolated mill town in the Pacific Northwest—not everyone who shows up for a hastily organized Big Walk is motivated by patriotism. Not Helen Hubka, an inveterate gossip; not the suicidal Caroline, who months earlier lost her beloved husband during the Storm of the Century. Not ex-soldier/fisherman Jaspar Goode, nor the unknown man in their midst, a collared priest who seems to shift identities at will. Certainly not Avis, a battered teenager running from her terrifying brother . . . with a stolen town treasure. And when the walkers stumble upon the abandoned car of a missing young mother, they rekindle a mystery that soon reverberates among them, exposing hidden truths, talents, and alliances.

Splendidly imagined, with prose that sings on the page, On the Way to the End of the World is an adventure story riven with secrets, a national fairy tale twisted into a whodunit.

"On the Way to the End of the World is a marvel, a novel as breathtakingly suspenseful as it is beautifully written. Adrianne Harun manages to balance nostalgia, grief, and a growing sense of unease as she tracks her indelible characters on a historic fifty-mile walk that will end a certain kind of American innocence. This is one of the best books I've read in years." -- Jess Walter, author of Beautiful Ruins and The Cold Millions

Adrianne Harun is the author of two short story collections, The King of Limbo, a Washington State Book Award finalist, and Catch, Release, winner of the Eric Hoffer Award. Her first novel A Man Came Out of a Door in the Mountain was long-listed for the International Dublin Literary Award, a finalist for both the Pacific Northwest Booksellers' Award and the Washington State Book Award and winner of a Pinckley Prize for Debut Crime Fiction. A new novel, On the Way to the End of the World, was recently published.

Winner of the Tobias Wolff Award in Fiction, Ted O'Connell is a writer and musician whose creative products have been featured in literary magazines, taverns, and music halls throughout the country. A Bellingham local, he gigs with the Prozac Mountain Boys and Cape Flattery. His debut novel, K, made BuzzFeed News' list of "21 Great Books from Small Presses," and The New York Journal of Books described K as "a mix of Orwell and Borges, with a dash of wide-eyed Kerouac."

The Chuckanut Radio Hour, a recipient of Bellingham's prestigious Mayor's Arts Award, is a radio variety show that began in January 2007. Each Chuckanut Radio Hour includes guest authors, musicians, performance poet Kevin Murphy, and episodes of "As the Ham Turns" serial radio comedy performed by the Chuckanut Radio Players Les Campbell, Tonja Meyers, Lisa Colburn, Dee Robinson, Sarah Hawley, and Robert Muzzy. Not to mention groaner jokes by hosts Paul Hanson, Kelly Evert, and announcer Rich Donnelly. The Chuckanut Radio Hour's first guest was Erik Larson and has since included, Tom Robbins, Maria Semple, Christopher McDougall, Erica Bauermeister, and Garrison Keillor, among many others. Tickets for the Chuckanut Radio Hour are $5 and are available on Eventbrite.The Radio Hour airs Sundays at 7pm on Community Powered KMRE at 88.3FM and kmre.org. Co-sponsored by 12th Street Shoes.

*Online registration closes two hours prior to the event. Tickets may be available at the door.