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David Baldacci-‘A Calamity of Souls’
April 27 @ 10:00 am - 11:00 am
Join us on Saturday, April 27th at 10AM as Succeed2gether’s Montclair Literary Festival welcomes New York Times bestselling author David Baldacci in conversation about ‘A Calamity of Souls’.
‘A Calamity of Souls’ is set in the tumultuous year of 1968 in southern Virginia, a racially-charged murder case sets a duo of white and Black lawyers against a deeply unfair system as they work to defend their wrongfully-accused Black defendants in this courtroom drama.
Jack Lee is a white lawyer from Freeman County, Virginia, who has never done anything to push back against racism, until he decides to represent Jerome Washington, a Black man charged with brutally killing an elderly and wealthy white couple. Doubting his decision, Lee fears that his legal skills may not be enough to prevail in a case where the odds are already stacked against both him and his client. And he quickly finds himself out of his depth when he realizes that what is at stake is far greater than the outcome of a murder trial.
Desiree DuBose is a Black lawyer from Chicago who has devoted her life to furthering the causes of justice and equality for everyone. She comes to Freeman County and enters a fractious and unwieldy partnership with Lee in a legal battle against the best prosecutor in the Commonwealth. Yet DuBose is also aware that powerful outside forces are at work to blunt the victories achieved by the Civil Rights era.
Lee and DuBose could not be more dissimilar. On their own, neither one can stop the prosecution’s deliberate march towards a guilty verdict and the electric chair. But together, the pair fight for what once seemed impossible: a chance for a fair trial and true justice.
Over a decade in the writing, A Calamity of Souls breathes richly imagined and detailed life into a bygone era, taking the reader through a world that will seem both foreign and familiar.
The Student Center Ballrooms are located on the second floor of the Student Center.
Park in the Red Hawk Deck Parking Deck (item number 21 on the printable campus map). No matter which level you park, we recommend exiting from Level 5.
Follow the path with Pittser Field on your left. You will pass a brown brick building on your right which is Dickson Hall (item number 31 on the printable campus map).
Continue on the path to the white stucco building with the red roof and a clock tower in front of you, which is University Hall. Turn right at University Hall and the Student Center is the tall white building in front of you. The front entrance faces the quad. Enter the main doors and turn left, and you will see the Student Center Ballrooms.
Any proceeds from the festival benefit parent organization, Montclair-based non-profit Succeed2gether, which offers free after-school one-on-one tutoring and enrichment classes with the aim of closing the education and opportunity gaps in Essex County, NJ. You can read more about Succeed2gether and the festival at www.succeed2gether.org.
Succeed2gether’s Montclair Literary Festival organizing committee wishes to thank its primary festival partners – Montclair State University, Watchung Booksellers, Montclair Public Library – festival sponsors, event sponsors, our many community supporters and volunteers.