Pride Month Reading: Make the Dark Night Shine with Alan Lessik

Project Number:

24-0627

Author:

Alan Lessik

Date:

Thursday, 27 June 2024, 7 p.m.

Place:

Erlesenes & Büchergilde
Neubrunnenstr. 17
55116 Mainz

Admission:

Admission is free. Please register via e-mail at post(at)buechergilde-mainz.de.

Language:

English

In cooperation with:

Erlesenes & Büchergilde Mainz

Partner:

This event is kindly supported by the German Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Inspired by the author’s family history, Make the Dark Night Shine (Rebel Satori Press 2023) is a love letter from a father to the daughter he never met.

In 1919, Kenzo Uchida and his same-sex partner Mitsu arrive in Constantinople to open the new Japanese Consulate. Kenzo meets Elisa, a feisty Ukrainian cigarette girl in a nightclub and she becomes his consort to hide his gay relationship while in Europe. The unlikely trio begin an adventure in the decadence of post-war Paris until disaster strikes. Returning to the growing militarism in Japan, Kenzo finds an unexpected path in Zen Buddhism. Yet no teachings prepare him for the revelations to come — about his life, his loves, and the events around him. On the eve of WWII, he discovers that he has a daughter living with Elisa in New York. He leaves the monastery on a perilous mission to promote peace with a secret plan to reunite with his daughter Nina.

Cinematic in scope, this novel lyrically captures the world on the brink of war. As Kenzo builds — and fights for — his chosen family, larger forces threaten all. Sweeping, meditative, and achingly beautiful, Make the Dark Night Shine explores the many worlds a life can inhabit, and the hidden worlds we find in ourselves.

Celebrating Pride Month, U.S. author Alan Lessik will present his novel and discuss its central topics with the audience.