Book Talk: George Packer — The Emergency - with Jeffrey Goldberg

Video Description

Watch author George Packer's book talk and reading at Politics and Prose bookstore in Washington, D.C. George Packer's bestselling nonfiction work exploring American life has won many prizes, including the National Book Award. With The Emergency, he turns to fiction, bringing us a visionary novel that goes to the nerve center of what it means to live in a time of fracture and upheaval. An empire has collapsed from boredom and loss of faith in itself. In the Emergency that follows, youth rebellions of urban Burghers and rural Yeomen embrace radical new ideas of humanity. Doctor Hugo Rustin, chief surgeon at the Imperial College Hospital, is increasingly estranged from his city and his family--from his wife, Annabelle, who finds fulfillment in their changed community; and especially from his teenage daughter, Selva, who has turned against her father's values. When an incident at the hospital leads to Rustin's disgrace, he seeks redemption in a quixotic and dangerous journey into the countryside, with Selva as his companion, just as the conflict between Burghers and Yeomen is reaching a crisis. The Emergency is a novel of ideas and a taut page-turner. It asks what we owe each other across divided generations and classes--what common human bonds remain when a society falls apart. In creating a vividly imagined world, Packer takes us deep into the heart of our troubled moment. George Packer is an award-winning author and staff writer at The Atlantic. His previous books include The Unwinding: An Inner History of the New America (winner of the National Book Award), The Assassins' Gate: America in Iraq, and Our Man: Richard Holbrooke and the End of the American Century (winner of the Hitchens Prize and the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for biography). He is also the author of two novels and a play, and the editor of a two-volume edition of the essays of George Orwell. Packer is in conversation with Jeffrey Goldberg, the editor in chief of The Atlantic and the moderator of Washington Week With The Atlantic. He joined The Atlantic in 2007 as a national correspondent and in 2016 was named the magazine’s 15th editor in chief. In 2020, Goldberg was named editor of the year by Adweek, which also named The Atlantic magazine of the year. Before joining The Atlantic, Goldberg served as the Middle East correspondent, and then the Washington correspondent, for The New Yorker. Earlier in his career, he was a writer for The New York Times Magazine, where he wrote 15 cover stories. He began his career as a police reporter for The Washington Post. Goldberg is the author of Prisoners: A Story of Friendship and Terror. PURCHASE BOOK HERE: https://politics-prose.com/book/9780374614720?ic_referral=oA2bl2w_cGr4KciAS4SxHOqoCbga8ONWio72TNi_KCswM5GPTUp_barIOoC6dOXqgrPNSJKat0k0qR7plOylu7pZN-j_YMdeMfWt4vAJU9IDO8s5DE26eUPF7TgKEdoGc8-muZM @politicsprose Visit us online at: http://www.politics-prose.com/ Listen on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/3zo7wP18cynBZG0ECLQZm5?si=d0f5267b8b014248 Linktree: https://linktr.ee/politicsprose Politics and Prose is a beloved and award-winning staple for book lovers around the nation's capital and the world. In addition to our incredible selection of titles, Politics and Prose offers public book talks with today's leading authors and journalists. Founded by Carla Cohen and Barbara Meade in 1984, Politics and Prose Bookstore is Washington, D.C.'s premier independent bookstore and cultural hub, a gathering place for people interested in reading and discussing books. Politics and Prose offers superior service, unusual book choices, and a haven for book lovers in the store and online. #books #booktube