SOLD OUT – Frank Bruni, The Beauty of Dusk *Ticketed Event*

THIS EVENT IS SOLD OUT

We are delighted to welcome Frank Bruni to McIntyre’s Books for the paperback release of his memoir, The Beauty of Dusk. Mr. Bruni is happy to sign this and previous books he’s penned from your collection.

To attend this reading, we require registration and proof of paperback book purchase ($19) from McIntyre’s. Depending on COVID rates at the time of the event, masks may be required, so please bring one.

“The Beauty of Dusk isn’t the sad story of a man who lost his sight; it is the generous narrative of a student who sought wisdom when trials appeared in his life. . . . The volume curates an extraordinary collection of miniature profiles in courage and perseverance—a college friend with Parkinson’s, a blind Rhodes scholar turned lieutenant governor and many more. As Bruni walks alongside those who have heard the unwanted news, suffered the terrifying and somehow found intimacy, purpose and joy, he metabolizes his own loss into a muscular wisdom. . . . There is mental and physical agony in this life, and Bruni does not judge anyone’s decisions; rather, he grieves the losses and appreciates the grace. . . . Bruni persuades us to adapt out of loss. To do this, he relies on his writing weapons: He names the issues, asks the knotty questions, then writes toward the truths that the reader may need.” —Min Jin Lee, The New York Times

One morning in late 2017, New York Times columnist Frank Bruni woke up with strangely blurred vision. He wondered at first if some goo or gunk had worked its way into his right eye. But this was no fleeting annoyance, no fixable inconvenience. Overnight, a rare stroke had cut off blood to one of his optic nerves, rendering him functionally blind in that eye—forever. And he soon learned from doctors that the same disorder could ravage his left eye, too. He could lose his sight altogether.

In this “moving and inspiring” (The Washington Post) memoir, Bruni beautifully recounts his adjustment to this daunting reality, a medical and spiritual odyssey that involved not only reappraising his own priorities but also reaching out to, and gathering wisdom from, longtime friends and new acquaintances who had navigated their own traumas and afflictions. At it’s core, this is “a book about vision loss that becomes testimony to human courage, a moving memoir that offers perspective, comfort, and hope” Booklist, starred review)

The result is a poignant, probing, and ultimately “a positive message, a powerful reminder that with great vulnerability also comes great reward” (Oprah Winfrey). Bruni’s world blurred in one sense, as he experienced his first real inklings that the day isn’t forever and that light inexorably fades, but sharpened in another. Confronting unexpected hardship, he felt more blessed than ever before. The Beauty of Dusk is “a wonderful book. Honest. Poetic. Uplifting.” (Lesley Stahl).

“[An] affecting, illuminating memoir . . . With compassion and grace, Bruni guides us along a literal pilgrimage between light and darkness, a tender meld of science reporting and philosophical investigation.” —Oprah Daily Most Anticipated Books of 2022

“Exquisitely written—smart and funny and a joy to read. I love this book!” —Ina Garten

Frank Bruni has been a prominent journalist for more than three decades, including more than twenty-five years at The New York Times, the last ten of them as a nationally renowned op-ed columnist who appeared frequently as a television commentator. He was also a White House correspondent for the Times, its Rome bureau chief and, for five years, its chief restaurant critic. He is the author of four New York Times bestsellers, including The Beauty of Dusk, which reached #5 on both the hardcover nonfiction and the combined print and e-book nonfiction lists. In July 2021, he became a professor at Duke University, teaching media-oriented classes in the Sanford School of Public Policy. He continues to write his popular weekly newsletter for the Times  and to produce occasional essays as one of the newspaper’s Contributing Opinion Writers. He lives in Chapel Hill, N.C.