BookBar BookClub: Stay True with Hua Hsu
Sign up, receive your book in advance of the book club with plenty of time to read it, send in the questions and discussion points you'd like us to talk about, and join a vitual interview with the author, in which we'll discuss the book.
Winner of the Pulitzer Prize in Memoir, Hua Hsu's Stay True has been called 'one of the best nonfiction books about friendship ever' by The Atlantic, and 'a glorious, unforgettable book' by Patrick Radden Keefe.
When Hua Hsu first meets Ken in a Berkeley dorm room, he hates him. A frat boy with terrible taste in music, Ken seems exactly like everyone else. For Hua, who makes zines and haunts indie record shops, Ken represents all that he defines himself in opposition to - the mainstream.
The only thing Hua, the son of Taiwanese immigrants, and Ken, whose Japanese American family has been in the US for generations, have in common is that, however they engage with it, American culture doesn't seem to have a place for either of them. But despite his first impressions, Hua and Ken become friends, a friendship built on late-night conversations over cigarettes, long drives along the California coast, and the successes and humiliations of everyday college life. And then violently, senselessly, Ken is gone, killed in a carjacking, not even three years after the day they first meet.
Capturing a coming-of-age cut short, and a portrait of a beautiful friendship, Stay True is a deeply moving and intimate memoir about growing up and moving through the world in search of meaning and belonging.
Join the BookClub to receive a copy of the book, then join us on Tuesday 17th October at 7pm for a virtual event with Hua Hsu. The event will be recorded and you will be able to access the event for one month afterwards.
Your ticket price includes a copy of the book, as well as attendance at the virtual event. Buy a ticket to a single event for £18 or subscribe to the book club for £15 a month.
NB: We send out copies of the book at the same time each month, so our usually delivery time frame does not apply to the BookClub. You will receive an email when your copy has been dispatched or is ready for collection. Please visit our BookClub FAQs page for more details.