SUNDANCE NEWS RELEASE
What: Ben Rogers presents his debut novel, The Flamer. The evening will include a reading followed by Q&A and book signing.
Where: Sundance Books and Music, 121 California Avenue, Reno.
When: Thursday, March 29, 6:30 – 8 p.m.
About the book:
Meet Oby Brooks, closet pyromaniac. All boys tinker with fire. Oby Brooks holes up in a backyard shed to experiment with napalm recipes. He has a hand in burning down his own house, twice. He can’t help it: his very DNA seems made of TNT. Meanwhile, amidst the detonations, Oby’s sexuality is up for grabs. Parents, mountain men, chemistry teachers, neighbors and arson inspectors all try in their own quirky ways to usher Oby into adulthood with his fingers and eyelashes intact. In the end, the question is whether Oby’s nature will be nurtured or neutered. Oh, and will he land a Nobel Prize?
Praise for The Flamer:
“One of the wisest, funniest, strangest novels I’ve ever read, narrated by one of the most unique characters I’ve had the pleasure of meeting in American fiction. I treasure this book.” –Christopher Coake, author of You Came Back
“A diabolically funny, explosively tender portrait of youth. Brainy and splendidly profane, Rogers’s writing is incendiary and hypnotic. We watch with an arsonist’s glee as his boy genius lights the fuse of his own volatile adolescence. A sizzling debut.” –Claire Vaye Watkins, author of Battleborn
About the author:The F
Ben Rogers lives in Reno with his wife and two daughters. He studied engineering and journalism in college and later earned a master’s degree in mechanical engineering. Since then he has worked as an analyst at a business accelerator, a reporter at newspapers, a teacher and a research scientist at various labs, including Oak Ridge National Laboratory and the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Since 2004 he has been principal engineer at Nevada Nanotech Systems. His fictional work has garnered a Nevada Arts Council Fellowship and two Sierra Arts Foundation Literary Artist Endowment grants.
