Join us for a reading and conversation with author Pearl Whitfield, currently on tour in support of her newly published book Aspara.

Apsara is the story of a young girl in a remote village in 12th century Cambodia, who loves to dance and is chosen to train as an Apsara (court dancer) for King Jayavarman VII. Apsaras dance to bring heaven to earth, blessing the land with prosperity. Bopha walks from her home to Angkor Wat, and begins a life she could never have imagined.

This work of historical fiction grew from an experience Pearl Whitfield had in 2013, in Cambodia at the museum in Siem Reap (the town closest to Angkor Wat). The book had a long incubation after 2013, but then was written in less than two years. “In a way, it wrote itself,” says Whitfield, “I just had to sit down and listen.”

Apsara is Whitfield's second novel. The first, The Storekeeper, A Tale of Small Town Life, is a story about a small town in the inter-mountain west of modern day USA.

https://forbeslibrary.libcal.com/event/9202071