A Sense of Direction by Lewis-Kraus (Riverhead) Magic Hours (McSweeney's) by Bissell Essayists Gideon Lewis-Kraus and Tom Bissell will discuss and sign their new respective books, A Sense of Direction and Magic Hours. Praise for A Sense of Direction: "A very honest, very smart, very moving book about being young and rootless and even wayward. With great compassion and zeal he gets at the question: why search the world to solve the riddle of your own heart?" —Dave Eggers "If David Foster Wallace had written Eat, Pray, Love, it might have come close to approximating the adventures of Gideon Lewis-Kraus. A Sense of Direction is the digressively brilliant and seriously hilarious account of a fellow neurotic’s wanderings, and his hard-won lessons in happiness, forgiveness, and international pilgrim fashion." —Gary Shteyngart Praise for Tom Bissell's previous works: "Bissell is a Renaissance Man for our out-of-joint time… His descriptions of simulated gore and mayhem manage to be clinical, gripping, and hilarious all at once. He transmits to the reader the primitive, visceral excitements that make video games so enticing, even addictive, to their legions of devotees." —The New Republic "Written with such panache and laden with so much information that it rises to real seriousness… moves along as deftly as a novel… [A] combination of crack-up wit, wild ambition and preposterous youth." —The New York Times Book Review Gideon Lewis-Kraus has written for Harper’s, The Believer, The New York Times Book Review, n+1, McSweeney’s, BookForum, The Nation, Slate, and other publications. A 2007-2008 Fulbright fellowship brought him to Berlin, world capital of contemporary restlessness. For the moment he lives in Brooklyn. Tom Bissell is the author of Extra Lives, Chasing the Sea, God Lives in St. Petersburg, and The Father of All Things. A recipient of the Rome Prize, a Guggenheim Fellowship, and the Bay de Noc Community College Alumnus of the Year Award. THIS EVENT WAS RECORDED LIVE AT SKYLIGHT BOOKS MAY 21, 2012.