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Bookable Space with Karla Huebner
Hosted by Yvonne Battle-Felton, this episode of Bookable Space features Karla Huebner reading from In Search of the Magic Theater.
Karla Huebner’s short fiction has appeared in many literary and genre magazines. Having worked in theater and performed in early music ensembles and gamelans, she is also an art historian whose prizewinning book on the Czech surrealist Toyen was published by University of Pittsburgh Press in 2020. Her novel In Search of the Magic Theater is just out from Regal House.
About the book: Why, the rather staid young cellist Sarah wonders, should her aunt rent their spare room to the perhaps unstable Kari Zilke? Like the nephew in Hermann Hesse’s Steppenwolf, Sarah finds herself taking an unexpected interest in the lodger, but she is unable to stop at providing a mere introduction to Kari’s narrative of mid-life crisis and self-discovery, and develops her own more troubled tale of personal angst and growth, entwined with the account Kari herself purportedly left behind. Generational tensions, artistic collaborations, and even a romance steeped in Greek myth follow as Kari and Sarah pursue their very different creative paths in theater and music. And while Kari seems to blossom post-divorce, Sarah must grapple with the question of what the role of mothers, fathers, aunts, mentors, and male collaborators should be in her life as a young musician.