In conversation with author, Jeffrey Luscombe.
Attend a live reading and conversation with author Jeffrey Luscombe, who discusses his new book, To Refrain From Embracing.
The 45-minute conversation is followed by a 15-minute question-and-answer period. Check out the HPL catalogue to borrow the book before the event.
From the backdrop of an impoverished steel-working community in working-class Hamilton, Ontario, in the 1970s, To Refrain From Embracing follows the trials facing a small family after an attempted suicide leaves veteran Ted checked into a psychiatric hospital. His wife struggles with family finances and growing concern for the well-being of their young son while also rediscovering her Indigenous identity through encounters with a handsome steelworker. The son's struggles with his nascent sexuality, lack of acceptance from his peers, and fears about his father's mental health leads him to a friendship with a troubled teen. Jeffrey Luscombe's new novel is a dark and comedic tale of a family squeezed by personal and societal precepts of class, race, and sexuality.
Jeffrey Luscombe was born and raised around the factories and steel mills of East End Hamilton, where he now sets his unique brand of naturalistic and dark comic fiction. Jeffrey has twice been shortlisted for the Prism International Fiction Prize. He was shortlisted for the Kerry Schooley Award by the Hamilton Arts Council for his debut novel, Shirts and Skins, and his new novel, To Refrain From Embracing, was named a “Best Book of 2023” by the Independent Book Review.
