Award-winning author Janet Burroway will be in conversation with Miles Harvey, DePaul professor and English Chair, about Janet’s new novel, Simone in Pieces at Bookends & Beginnings in Evanston on Saturday, February 7, 2026 at 4 p.m.
Janet is also the author of Writing Fiction: A Guide to Narrative Craft, (a bestseller through 10 editions) and has written eight previous novels, as well as a memoir, plays, short fiction, children’s books, and more. Recipient of the Florida Humanities Council’s Lifetime Achievement Award in Writing, she is Robert O. Lawton Distinguished Professor Emerita at Florida State University at Tallahassee. The conversation will be followed by a book signing.
Doors and minibar open at 3:30 p.m. Register for the event here.
About Simone in Pieces: Readers first meet Simone Lerrante, a Belgian war orphan, as a child refugee in Sussex, England, her memory damaged by trauma. This novel offers a kaleidoscopic vision of her fractured life and piecemeal understanding of self across multiple points of view. Following her from Cambridge to New York City and across the United States—through a disastrous marriage, thwarted desire, and the purgatory of academic backwaters—the novel charts Simone’s unexpected reconnection with her past, which provides both autonomy and inspiration for her future. Janet Burroway slowly reveals a multifaceted, fascinating protagonist, who observes her own life without always allowing herself to be immersed in it. Spanning seven decades, this story is both epic and contained, rewarding readers at every turn.
