On February 9th, 2009 Kepler's welcomed the award- winning author Yiyun Li, reading from her acclaimed novel The Vagrants. Li is also the author of the story collection, A Thousand Years of Good Prayers, which won the inaugural Frank O'Connor International Short Story Award among others.
Irish writer Colm Toibin said about Yiyun's writing: "What concerns her most is the large matter of love, in all its twists and turns, and disappointment in all its strange variations, and levels of deep emotion and attachment buried in silence and misunderstanding."
In her recent FORUM interview with Michael Krasny, Yiyun Li said that all of her stories are stories about love. In "The Vagrants," she tells one of the most unusual love stories I have ever read, between a young disturbed man Bashi and Nini, a 12-year-old scavenger girl with a limp.
During Q&A session, Li passionately defended Bashi's controversial character, "If you read the book, you'll see, Bashi was capable of loving. He broke my heart in the end."
Yiyun Li in conversation with Rick Trushel, a member of Kepler's Writing Group.
Yiyun Li signs a copy of her book for Frank Sanchez, Kepler's head buyer.
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