Nick Laird, "Modern Gods"

Unfolding in Northern Ireland, New York City, and Papua New Guinea, Laird’s wide-ranging third novel follows two sisters who live very different lives, yet face similar challenges. Alison works in their father’s business in Northern Ireland and hopes to jump-start her life with a second marriage. Liz, a professor in New York, is on her way to Oceania to make a film about a newly discovered religion. Neither woman’s venture goes according to plan, and in his deft interweaving of the sisters’ experiences, Laird explores question of family, memory, and fanaticism. An award-winning poet as well as the author of the novels Utterly Monkey and Glover’s Mistake, Laird currently teaches in the Creative Writing Program at New York University. Laird is in conversation with Nate Brown, managing editor of the Austin-based literary magazine American Short Fiction.

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