Alexander Maksik w/ Scott Burton, "Passengers"

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Anyone who has moved far enough from home knows the strange arithmetic of it: the further you get, the more of yourself you have to leave behind as collateral. Maksik writes people in transit - between countries, between marriages, between the person they were and whoever is about to be issued the passport - and he writes them without the consolation most novels offer at the end. The new one puts strangers in motion together and refuses to make them friends. Burton joins him in conversation, which at Skylight means a real back-and-forth rather than a script; the store has been running these long enough that the authors mostly stop performing about twenty minutes in. Forty chairs, poetry shelves at your shoulder, the roll-up door open to Vermont Avenue if the night is warm. The thing worth knowing is that Monday readings here draw the smallest and most serious crowd of the week, which is exactly why the questions are better. Free, RSVP requested. If you own a passport with a stamp you have never explained to your family, this one is addressed to you.