LIVE from NYPL: A Bright Ray of Darkness: Ethan Hawke with Caryn James

The acclaimed actor/writer/director's first novel in 20 years is the blistering story of a young man making his Broadway debut in Henry IV just as his marriage implodes.

Ethan Hawke's new novel is a bracing meditation on fame and celebrity and the redemptive power of art; a portrait of divorce; and a poignant consideration on fatherhood. It's also a passionate love letter to the world of theater. His narrator is a young man in torment, disgusted with himself after the collapse of his marriage, still half-hoping for a reconciliation that would allow him to forgive himself and move on. But he might find his redemption in the challenge of performing Hotspur in a production of Henry IV under the leadership of a brilliant director, helmed by one of the most electrifying—and narcissistic—Falstaffs of all time.

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Ethan Hawke, a four-time Academy Award nominee, twice for writing and twice for acting, has starred in the films Dead Poets Society, Reality Bites, Gattaca, and Training Day, as well as Richard Linklater's Before Sunrise trilogy and Boyhood. He is the author of Rules for a Knight, The Hottest State, and Ash Wednesday. He lives in Brooklyn with his four children and his wife.

Caryn James is a film critic for BBC Culture, and a frequent contributor on film and television to The Wall Street Journal and The Hollywood Reporter. She was previously a film critic and chief television critic at The New York Times, and an editor at The New York Times Book Review. She has appeared on various television programs as a film commentator and is also Adjunct Asst. Professor of Film at Columbia University. She is the author of the novels Glorie and What Caroline Knew, and has a Ph.D. in English literature from Brown University.

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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.