Events

The Invention of Hebrew is the first book to approach the Bible in light of recent epigraphic discoveries on the extreme antiquity of the alphabet and its use as a deliberate and meaningful choice. Hebrew was more than just a way of transmitting information; it was a vehicle of political symbolism and self-representation.

Seth L. Sanders connects the Bible's distinctive linguistic form - writing down a local spoken language - to a cultural desire to speak directly to people, summoning them to join a new community that the text itself helped call into being. Addressing the people of Israel through a vernacular literature, Hebrew texts reimagined their audience as a public. By comparing Biblical documents with related ancient texts in Hebrew, Ugaritic, and Babylonian, this book shows Hebrew's distinctiveness as a self-conscious political language. Illuminating the enduring stakes of Biblical writing, Sanders demonstrates how Hebrew assumed and promoted a source of power previously unknown in written literature: "the people" as the protagonist of religion and politics.

Novelist and poet Ha Jin, who won the National Book Award in 1999 for Waiting, will discuss his new collection of short stories, A Good Fall.

Set in the city of Flushing, New York – which hosts a large immigrant Chinese community - these twelve stories explore the myriad challenges experienced by recent transplants to the United States. Jin deftly probes the loneliness, dislocation, and anxiety his characters suffer, along with their excitement in new surroundings, the chafing of one generation against another, and the inevitable fear that transpires when the familiar past gives way to the often incomprehensible present: Americanized-children clash with their traditionalist elders in scenarios that play out in countless immigrant families; a botched suicide results in a new life that could never have been imagined; a tender relationship is described between a lonely composer and his girlfriend’s parakeet. Through humor, detail, and an ever- poetic point of view, Ha Jin creates a bouquet of resilient, courageous individuals. A Good Fall has been highly praised as “marvelous – one of the most powerful books of the year,” “not to be missed – a beautifully written, elegant, subtle and yet always precise collection” and “Ha Jin’s best book yet.”

The free, hour-long interview is a partnership between the Chicago Public Library and 98.7WFMT radio, with a taping at 6:00 p.m. in the Cindy Pritzker Auditorium at the Harold Washington Library Center, 400 S. State Street. The interview will be broadcast at noon on Sunday, January 17th. The Seminary Co-Op Bookstores sells books at the event, which is underwritten by Graver Capital Management LLC. The events are free, no reservations required, with seating on a first-come basis.