SURREY — Award-winning author Ari Goelman is featured in the next KPU Reads event at the school’s Surrey campus.
His latest book, a dystopian young-adult novel called The Innocence Treatment, tells the story of Lauren, a teen with a cognitive disorder that causes her to believe everything she is told, and that everyone is her friend. After corrective surgery, she finds herself wrestling with paranoid delusions that may not be delusions.
“I’m thrilled to have The Innocence Treatment published now,” Goelman stated. “It’s set in a United States where the government may or may not be lying to the populace, a world where nobody is sure what’s true, set against a backdrop of climate change. So basically I’m grateful to have it come out before reality totally overtakes fiction.”
Goelman, a business and criminology instructor who lives in Vancouver, will read from the book on Monday, Jan. 22 during a lunchtime edition of KPU Reads, a Faculty of Arts initiative designed to bring students, faculty and the community together in discussion around one book.
The event, which runs from 11:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. at KPU’s Coast Capital Savings Library (first floor, 12666 72nd Ave.), kicks off with a meet-and-greet with Goelman, a short reading, light refreshments and a chance to win a copy of the novel. Admission is free and open to the public. More details are posted at kpu.ca/reads.
A second reading of the book will take place in late March.
Starting next week is #KPUReads! We're going to be reading "The Innocence Treatment" by KPU's own Ari Goelman https://t.co/n2jqKzVLo3
— Arts @ KPU (@KPUArts) January 15, 2018
Written as a series of journal entries and therapy transcripts, The Innocence Treatment was inspired by a radio story Goelman heard about a young woman with a cognitive disability that required her to be accompanied everywhere to prevent anyone from taking advantage of her.
When he’s not writing books, Goelman teaches quantitative methods, including ways in which to differentiate between truth and lies when dealing with statistics and other ways of knowing about the world, at KPU’s Faculty of Arts and School of Business.
“With a protagonist just a year or two younger than many first-year students, I hope our (KPU) students can connect with the main characters in the book,” Goelman added.
“I’m also hopeful that my book will serve as a way to get faculty and students talking about things like the current political moment, climate change, and fundamentally, how do we as humans make sense of the world around us?”
(STORY CONTINUES BELOW VIDEO OF ARI GOELMAN FROM 2013)
Goelman’s debut novel, The Path of Names, won the Chocolate Lily Award (2014) and was shortlisted for the YA Sunburst Award (2014), the B.C. Book Prize Award (2014) and the Diamond Willow Award (2014).
Dr. Diane Purvey, Faculty of Arts Dean, said organizers of KPU Reads are “proud to select a novel that is not only written by a recognized and celebrated author, but he is also one of our outstanding instructors. We’re very lucky to have Ari at KPU.”
Goelman’s website is at arigoelman.com.
tom.zillich@surreynowleader.com
Like us on Facebook and follow Tom on Twitter