TIFA Presents: Max Porter Presents Shy
Max Porter Presents Shy: An Evening of Storytelling, with special guest Feist
In a dilapidated mansion, in the middle of the night, a troubled teenage boy is considering what could be his final decision in this world. This is the central story in Shy, the newest book by Max Porter, the multi-award-winning author of The Death of Francis Bacon, Lanny (longlisted for the Booker Prize) and Grief Is the Thing with Feathers. A novel about guilt, rage, imagination and boyhood, Shy is about being lost in the dark, and realizing you are not alone.
Our protagonist’s fate will unfold, in a powerhouse one-night-only multi-disciplinary performance, where the critically acclaimed British author will recite an abridged version of Shy, joined by the live musical accompaniment of Canadian Juno Award-winner Leslie Feist. This moving and inventive evening of storytelling at Toronto’s new state-of-the-art TD Music Hall will include a moderated conversation with Porter and audience Q&A, with a book signing to follow. Books will be available for purchase courtesy of Type Books.
Ticket Info:
Date & Time: Tuesday, May 30 at 7:30pm ET
Run time: 75 minutes
Where: TD Music Hall (178 Victoria St, Toronto)
Ticket price (incl. HST): Regular – $24; Students & Youth – $17
The TIFA Friends presale is over. Public tickets are now on sale!
Shy. A troubled teen, a "dangerous young man," a reject from the social structures that no longer wish to nurture him. Shy knows that society has not failed him, he has failed it—parents, schooling, friends and sometime girlfriends. Judged and found wanting, he now lives at Last Chance, a boarding school for boys like him.
Set over a few hours of a single evening, Shy exists between the stillness and beauty of a nocturne and the exhilarating shout of simultaneous teenage joy and anguish. With leaps of linguistic brilliance and wild energy, this is an utterly immersive novel in its authenticity and heart-breaking honesty. As with all Porter’s writing, the darkness is indivisible from a core of humour and humanity. It is his greatest feat of empathy yet.
Max Porter is the author of The Death of Francis Bacon, Lanny, longlisted for the Booker Prize, and Grief Is the Thing with Feathers, winner of the International Dylan Thomas Prize and shortlisted for the Guardian First Book Award and the Goldsmiths Prize. He is the recipient of the Sunday Times/Peter, Fraser + Dunlop Young Writer of the Year award. Photo credit: Francesca Jones.
Leslie Feist is a Canadian singer-songwriter. Feist released her sixth studio album, Multitudes, on April 14, 2023 (Polydor Records). Photo credit: Mary Rozzi.
This event is presented by the Toronto International Festival of Authors and Strange Light Books, an imprint of Penguin Random House Canada.
