Conversations from the Cullman Center, LIVE from NYPL: The Mysteries: Marisa Silver with Jennifer Egan

Best-selling author Marisa Silver discusses her new novel about two young girls, their friendship, and the moment that shatters their lives.

Growing up in St. Louis in 1973, seven-year-olds Miggy Brenneman and Ellen are developing their first strong bond outside their families, as their parents navigate feminism, postpartum depression, and economic and marital instability. When tragedy strikes, Miggy is forced to understand her world in a new way, her future radically transformed, as the adults grapple with questions of fate and personal responsibility. The Mysteries is an intimate exploration of childhood, friendship, and the reckoning with seemingly unanswerable questions at all ages.

Marisa Silver researched and wrote The Mysteries during her 2018–2019 Fellowship at the Library’s Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman Center for Scholars and Writers. She discusses her book with award-winning author Jennifer Egan.

Produced in partnership with The Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman Center for Scholars and Writers.

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Marisa Silver suggests these titles for further reading:

• Desperate Characters by Paula Fox — NYPL Catalog ; NYPL Talking Books ; Bookshare
• Sula by Toni Morrison — NYPL Catalog ; NYPL Talking Books ; Bookshare
• The Blue Flower by Penelope Fitzgerald — NYPL Catalog ; NYPL Talking Books ; Bookshare
• The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy — NYPL Catalog ; NYPL Talking Books ; Bookshare
• Waterland by Graham Swift — NYPL Catalog ; Bookshare

Check out more titles by Marisa Silver and Jennifer Egan:

• Little Nothing by Marisa Silver — NYPL Catalog ; Bookshare
• Mary Coin by Marisa Silver — NYPL Catalog ; NYPL Talking Books ; Bookshare
• A Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan — NYPL Catalog ; NYPL Talking Books ; Bookshare
• Manhattan Beach by Jennifer Egan — NYPL Catalog ; NYPL Talking Books ; Bookshare

Marisa Silver is the author of six previous works of fiction, including the novels Mary Coin, a New York Times bestseller, and Little Nothing, a New York Times Editor’s Choice. Her short fiction has appeared in the New Yorker and been included in The Best American Short Stories and The O. Henry Prize Stories. Silver has received fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation and the New York Public Library’s Cullman Center. She teaches at the MFA Program for Writers at Warren Wilson College.

Jennifer Egan’s most recent novel, Manhattan Beach, a New York Times bestseller, was awarded the 2018 Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction and was chosen as New York City’s “One Book One New York” read. Her previous novel, A Visit From the Goon Squad, was named one of the best books of the decade by Time Magazine and Entertainment Weekly. She recently completed a term as President of PEN America and was a Fellow at the Cullman Center in 2004-2005.

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The Cullman Center is made possible by a generous endowment from Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman in honor of Brooke Russell Astor, with major support provided by Mrs. John L. Weinberg, The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, The Estate of Charles J. Liebman, The von der Heyden Family Foundation, John and Constance Birkelund, and The Samuel I. Newhouse Foundation, and with additional gifts from Helen and Roger Alcaly, The Rona Jaffe Foundation, The Arts and Letters Foundation Inc., William W. Karatz, Merilee and Roy Bostock, and Cullman Center Fellows.

LIVE from NYPL is made possible by the support of Library patrons and friends, as well as by the continuing generosity of Celeste Bartos, Mahnaz Ispahani Bartos and Adam Bartos, and the Margaret and Herman Sokol Public Education Endowment Fund.