Hey y’all,
Our annual Close Reads retreat has quickly become one of the highlights of our year, it being such a wonderful chance to discover new relationships, rekindle old friendships, and dig deeply (alongside those friends, new and old) into a great book. Since you signed up to receive this email, I suspect you agree that it’s hard to beat a week of great conversation in a delightful place with good food and thoughtful people.
Now we are excited to finally announce that our 2023 retreat will be on Dostoesvky’s masterpiece, Brothers Karamazov, and will take place June 18-23.
As you can see on this handsome graphic that Graeme Pitman designed, we will once again gather at the Chetola Resort in Blowing Rock, NC.
You can find all the requisite details on the retreat HERE, but please note that the event is limited to 21 seats* and that last year it filled up in roughly one hour.
Registration will open on Monday, December 21, first to Close Reads HQ subscribers at noon eastern, and then widely at 3:00 pm (if any seats are still available).
Brothers Karamazov is a beloved, complicated, sometimes difficult, often sublime, deeply poetic, and intensely personal book that has a tendency to burrow under the skin of those who let it do its work. As such, it’s ideal for an event like this, where we have the time and opportunity to allow it to speak. So, whether you read it for its characters and drama, its theological and philosophical ruminations, its Russian essence and historical context—or simply to see what the fuss is about—we hope you’ll join us in June for a grandly inquisitive excursion into one of the greatest books ever written.
"[Dostoevsky is] at once the most literary and compulsively readable of novelists we continue to regard as great . . . The Brothers Karamazov stands as the culmination of his art—his last, longest, richest and most capacious book.”
—Donald Fanger, Washington Post Book World
*In some instances, married couples can share a room/seat. Shoot me an email if you would like to do this.
Three Ways You Can Support Us This Christmas
Need a last-minute Christmas gift for a book lover in your world? Here are three easy ideas that also help us out here at Close Reads and Goldberry Books:
Which edition will hosts use at the retreat? Though we came up with a code to reference pages this year, I'd like to make it simpler this time around. Thanks!
I registered!! Who else is going??