The Friends of VCU Libraries Book Club to meet on Sunday, July 9 to discuss Remarkably Bright Creatures
The Friends of VCU Libraries Book Club will meet at 2 pm on Sunday, July 9 to discuss Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt. The book has been called, “an exploration of friendship, reckoning, and hope, tracing a widow’s unlikely connection with a giant Pacific octopus.”
From the publisher’s website:
“For fans of A Man Called Ove, a charming, witty and compulsively readable exploration of friendship, reckoning, and hope that traces a widow’s unlikely connection with a giant Pacific octopus.
After Tova Sullivan’s husband died, she began working the night shift at the Sowell Bay Aquarium, mopping floors and tidying up. Keeping busy has always helped her cope, which she’s been doing since her eighteen-year-old son, Erik, mysteriously vanished on a boat in Puget Sound over thirty years ago.
Tova becomes acquainted with curmudgeonly Marcellus, a giant Pacific octopus living at the aquarium. Marcellus knows more than anyone can imagine but wouldn’t dream of lifting one of his eight arms for his human captors—until he forms a remarkable friendship with Tova.
Ever the detective, Marcellus deduces what happened the night Tova’s son disappeared. And now Marcellus must use every trick his old invertebrate body can muster to unearth the truth for her before it’s too late.
Shelby Van Pelt’s debut novel is a gentle reminder that sometimes taking a hard look at the past can help uncover a future that once felt impossible.”
Dr. Kathleen Chapman from VCU’s Art History department has graciously agreed to facilitate our discussion, based on her interest in the assumptions that humans make about other species and about how we understand interspecies communication.
Please RSVP to Erica Brody at ebrody@vcu.edu, if you would like to participate in person at Cabell Library or virtually.