About

Barbara Kingsolver has earned a beloved readership around the world with her bestselling novels including The Poisonwood Bible, The Lacuna and multi-award winning The Demon Copperhead. She returns to Toronto for the first time since 2020 to present her highly anticipated new novel, Partita. The novel follows Livia Bohusz, a young woman unmoored by profound family tragedy, who finds her only refuge from grief in classical music. A scholarship carries her from the family farm into a new world of ambition, risk, and class friction. Fittingly, this coming-of-age story is structured precisely like the musical compositions Livia herself plays.

For this exclusive performance, a piano sits center stage, with a pianist performing the pieces Livia plays in the text, while Kingsolver reads passages from the novel. Barbara Kingsolver will be joined in conversation with Heather Reisman.

Single tickets purchased through Ticketmaster include a copy of Partita. 5-Day and Full Festival Passes do not include a copy of Partita. Books will be available for sale on site.

In partnership with Indigo

Generously supported by Beth Nowers and Jack Curtin.

Partita

The story of a brief, passionate, life-changing love affair, wrapped up in what might be the greatest romance of all: our eternal human longing for art and beauty. Livia Cable has made her peace with her marriage and modest livelihood in the farm country where she grew up, until a shocking phone call from an old lover shakes her to the core. Decades earlier, this man knew her as Livia Bohusz, a music conservatory student estranged from her home and family, uncertain of anything except her passion for music and promise as an extraordinary pianist.

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Published by HarperCollins Canada

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Barbara Kingsolver

Barbara Kingsolver is the author of ten bestselling works of fiction, including the novels Unsheltered, The Bean Trees, and The Poisonwood Bible, as well as books of poetry, essays, creative nonfiction, and Coyote’s Wild Home, a children’s book co-authored with Lily Kingsolver. She also collaborated with family members on the influential Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life.

Read more about Barbara Kingsolver