Rob Spillman in conversation with Jodi Angel on new memoir 'All Tomorrow's Parties' - April 8th

Time Tested Books 

is pleased to present

Rob Spillman

(founder of Tin House magazine)

in conversation with Jodi Angel

All Tomorrow's Parties

 Friday, April 8th, 7:00pm

From Rob Spillman, the award-winning, esteemed co-founder of Tin House magazine, comes ALL TOMORROW’S PARTIES, an intimate, spirited memoir of a rebellious young man's fierce pursuit of an artistic life and a portrait of a shifting Berlin in the midst of a cultural renaissance.

“If you’ve ever been young, in love, and desperate to live an authentic life, this book is for you: a ravishing memoir about a young man’s quest for art, meaning, and a place to call home.” 

—Anthony Doerr, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of All the Light We Cannot See

Rob Spillman has devoted his life to the restless pursuit of artistic authenticity. Born in Germany to two driven musicians, his childhood was spent among the West Berlin cognoscenti, in a city two hundred miles behind the Iron Curtain. There, the Berlin Wall stood as a stark reminder of the split between East and West, suppressed dreams and freedom of expression.

After an unsettled youth moving between divorced parents in disparate cities, Spillman’s formative years as a teenager were shaped by reading Hunter S. Thompson and Ken Kesey and listening to everything from punk to the classical concert halls and festivals where his father was a well-respected pianist and composer. Spillman would eventually find his way into the literary world of New York City, only to abandon it to return to Berlin just months after the Wall came down. Twenty-five and newly married, Spillman and his wife moved to the anarchic streets of East Berlin in search of the bohemian lifestyle of their idols. But Spillman soon discovered he was chasing the one thing that had always eluded him: a place, or person, to call home.

The beginning of each chapter of ALL TOMORROW’S PARTIES is framed with a song—a literary mixtape ranging from Beethoven to Sonic Youth and back again—that provides a soundtrack to the action on the page. (We have created a Spotify playlist where readers can listen along at www.tinyurl.com/ATPspillman.) In his intimate, entertaining, and heartfelt memoir, Spillman narrates a colorful coming-of-age portrait of an artist’s life that is simultaneously a cultural exploration of Berlin in the throes of transformation, but drawn to human scale.

“The lively debut memoir by a Tin House magazine co-founding editor about growing up in West Berlin then returning as an adult to post-Soviet-era East Berlin to find artistic purpose.…Musically and culturally astute, this well-structured book is a delightful coming-of-age story couched within a travel narrative that deftly evokes one of the major historical moments of the 20th century. A richly detailed and always engaging memoir on artistic discovery.”

–Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

“Carefully wrought....a quest of roots and writerly authenticity—and his evocation of East Berlin’s last days is exquisite and revealing.” 

–Publishers Weekly (starred review)

“Rob Spillman's story of rarefied opera culture as a child, and East German nightlife an adult, is limpid and lively in its telling, and it covers fascinating ground. Spillman is endearing and frank in his various adventures in a way that kept reminding me of Griffin Dunne in the movie After Hours, except instead of winding up in Club Berlin, he finds himself in the real one.”

—Rachel Kushner, author of The Flamethrowers

*Rob will appear in conversation with Jodi Angel!

ROB SPILLMAN is editor of Tin House magazine and editorial advisor at Tin House Books. He was previously the monthly book columnist for Details magazine and contributes book reviews and essays to Salon and Bookforum. He has written for the Boston Review, GQ, Details, the New York Times Book Review, Rolling Stone, Spin, Sports Illustrated, Vanity Fair, and Vogue, among other magazines, newspapers, and online publications. He has also worked for Random House, Vanity Fair, and The New Yorker, and taught at various MFA programs, including Columbia University.

JODI ANGEL’s work has appeared in Tin House, Zoetrope: All-Story, and the Sycamore Review, among other publications and anthologies. Her collection You Only Get Letters From Jail was published by Tin House Books in 2013.

This event is *FREE* and all are welcome.