PORT ANGELES — Erik Larson, the Seattle author of the new best-seller In the Garden of Beasts, is bringing what he calls his “Tour de Beasts” to town Wednesday — although the tour was supposed to be all over.
Larson also wrote 2003’s The Devil in the White City, another commercial home run that is easily the most-often recommended book at the Port Angeles bookshop Port Book & News, said shop co-owner Alan Turner.
His others include Thunderstruck, Isaac’s Storm and The Naked Consumer — all of which have enjoyed critical raves.
Since Beasts’ release May 10, Larson has crisscrossed the continent. He’s read excerpts of the tale, a look inside Nazi Germany through the eyes of an American ambassador and his 24-year-old daughter, at venues from Portland to Chicago to San Francisco, while the New York Times, National Public Radio and a flock of other media outlets have run interviews with him.
So Larson spent the spring as a hot commodity — and now his blog, at http://ErikLarsonBooks.com, declares that the Tour de Beasts has “come to a very successful end,” with Beasts at No. 3 on the New York Times hardcover nonfiction best-seller list.
It would seem, then, Larson doesn’t need to come to the Olympic Peninsula to sell more books.
But just about every time he publishes one, he does, said Turner, who with Port Book & News is the sponsor of Larson’s appearance at 7 p.m. Wednesday.
The writer will read from and sign copies of Beasts at the Port Angeles Library, 2210 S. Peabody St. Admission is free, while books will be available for purchase.
Larson shall return because he’s always gotten a warm reception here, said Turner.
“When The Devil in the White City first came out, we were early and strong believers in that book,” Turner added. He remembers reading an advance copy of Devil and thinking, “We’ve got to have him.”
Larson accepted Turner’s invitation — and drew a crowd. So this time out, Turner advised, readers should arrive around
6:30 p.m. to guarantee themselves one of the 100 seats in the library’s Raymond Carver Room.
So what is it about Beasts that has it hovering atop the best-seller lists?
This is no light summer novel; its subtitle is Love, Terror and an American Family in Hitler’s Berlin.
The writer’s distinctive take is what hooked Turner. It’s quintessential Erik Larson, “which is not dry history of how did the Nazis come to power and why did they get away with the things they did,” he said.
“It’s more the story of the family and the family’s experience,” which includes the daughter’s romances with Nazi officers. Through these human prisms, Larson lays out how the horrors of Hitler’s regime took hold slowly and surely.
“I just read the book twice,” Turner said. “I even read the footnotes.”
________
Features Editor Diane Urbani de la Paz can be reached at 360-417-3550 or at diane.urbani@
peninsuladailynews.com.
