P&T Knitwear is pleased to welcome Anne Yoder for a reading & discussion of her debut novel, The Enhancers (Meekling Press)! A polyvocal novel that follows three teenage friends coming of age in a techno-pharmaceutical society, The Enhancers asks questions of identity and selfhood in the age of Big Pharma and algorithms. Anne will be joined in the discussion by Joni Murphy, author of Talking Animals (FSG).

Hannah is born and raised in a town whose industry revolves around Lumena Corp., maker of the supplement Valedictorian. When Hannah and her friends start taking Valedictorian, or V., a mandated mental augmentation, they start to witness its untoward effects—Celia is institutionalized after an accidental drug-induced psychotic break, and not long after Hannah’s mental stability begins to slip. When a factory fire halts production, it threatens to throw the entire town into withdrawal. The Enhancers question who we are when defined by our ability to process information. With mental augmentation as a baseline: how do we know ourselves, and what does it take to break free from this alienation?

Praise for “The Enhancers”

“Imagine the fearlessness and wild imagination of Jenny Erpenbeck if she had a background in the pharmaceutical industry and you might come close to approximating the tremendous brilliance of Anne Yoder.” — Patrick Cottrell, author of Sorry to Disrupt the Peace

“Fans of Ling Ma and Jennifer Egan, here is your next book. Anne K. Yoder, in a lyrical voice of the many, gives us a haunting tale of pharmacology and a story of boundaries: human, chemical, and industrial. Where are those boundaries again? Where does a body start and end? Or, as Yoder puts it, How much information could one memory hold? In a text that is itself a wild, wonderfully written ride through a wormhole, The Enhancers thrills and horrifies with profound ramifications.” — Samantha Hunt, author of The Unwritten Book and The Seas

“The Enhancers experiments with language and ideas the way its characters experiment with chemicals, leaving the reader dizzy with excitement, asking: What is a fact? What is natural (and can it be saved)? Is self-enhancement also self-erasure?” — Sarah Gerard, author of True Love and Sunshine State

A must-read pick for WIRED, Vulture, NYLON, and Debutiful.

• This is a free in-store event with limited amphitheater-style seating
• We encourage all guests to wear masks.
• The talk will be followed by a book signing. Books signed at P&T Knitwear events must be purchased from P&T Knitwear. If you would like a signed copy and cannot attend the event, we’re happy to take your pre-order. We ship to most places!

About the author

Anne K. Yoder’s fiction, essays, and criticism have appeared in Fence, BOMB, Tin House, NY Tyrant, and MAKE, among other publications. She writes, lives, and occasionally dispenses pharmaceuticals in Chicago.

About the moderator

Joni Murphy is a writer from New Mexico who lives in New York. Her debut novel Double Teenage was published in 2016. It was named one of The Globe and Mail’s 100 Best Books of 2016.

Time: 7:00 PM — 8:00 PM EST

Free!

Registration