Untapped Cities is excited to host a book party for author Laurie Gwen Shapiro on January 19th 6-8 PM, during the launch week of her highly anticipated first non-fiction book, The Stowaway: A Young Man’s Extraordinary Adventure to Antarctica (published by Simon & Schuster). The Stowaway is a spectacular, true story of a scrappy teenager from New York’s Lower East Side who stowed away on the Roaring Twenties’ most remarkable feat of science and daring: an expedition to Antarctica.
The book party will feature a reading of the book by Laurie Gwen Shapiro, followed by a Q&A with her and Corey S. Powell, a leading science journalist and editor, the former editor in chief of Discover and American Scientist magazines, and head science writer on Bill Nye Saves the World.
The event will take place at the Untapped Cities offices, inside the historic Starrett-Lehigh Building in Chelsea, a New York City landmark located along the Hudson River. Fittingly, the true story of The Stowaway begins in Chelsea in 1928, where Billy Gawronski swims across the Hudson River to Hoboken and starts his adventure to Antarctica. The Starrett-Lehigh Building would be constructed just two years later.
The Stowaway was just announced as one of the only non-fiction books on the coveted The Indie Next Picks list for January 2018.
DETAILS:
Time and Date: January 19th, 2018, 6-8 PM
Price: $20 General Admission, $46 General Admission + Hardcopy of The Stowaway
Location: 601 W. 26th Street at The Centre for Social Innovation on the 3rd floor of the Starrett-Lehigh Building.
What to know: When you enter the building, tell the security guard you are going to an event at The Centre for Social Innovation. A cash bar will be available at the event. Copies of The Stowaway will be available for purchase with your ticket and on site, and can be autographed by the author.
MORE ABOUT THE BOOK:
The spectacular, true story of a scrappy teenager from New York’s Lower East Side who stowed away on the Roaring Twenties’ most remarkable feat of science and daring: an expedition to Antarctica.
It was 1928: a time of illicit booze, of Gatsby and Babe Ruth, of freewheeling fun. The Great War was over and American optimism was higher than the stock market. What better moment to launch an expedition to Antarctica, the planet’s final frontier? This was the moon landing before the 1960s. Everyone wanted to join the adventure. Rockefellers and Vanderbilts begged to be taken along as mess boys, and newspapers across the globe covered the planning’s every stage.
The night before the expedition’s flagship launched, Billy Gawronski—a skinny, first generation New York City high schooler desperate to escape a dreary future in the family upholstery business—jumped into the Hudson River and snuck aboard.
Could he get away with it?
From the grimy streets of New York’s Lower East Side to the rowdy dance halls of sultry Francophone Tahiti, all the way to Antarctica’s blinding white and deadly freeze, Laurie Gwen Shapiro’s The Stowaway takes you on the unforgettable voyage of a gutsy young stowaway who became an international celebrity, a mascot for an up-by-your bootstraps age.
WHAT PEOPLE ARE SAYING ABOUT THE STOWAWAY:
“Shapiro has rescued from oblivion a wondrous tale of exploration. The Stowaway is a thrilling adventure that captures not only the making of a man but of a nation.”
— David Grann, bestselling author of Killers of the Flower Moon
“The Stowaway proves that fact is stranger and funnier and more amazing than fiction. Laurie Gwen Shapiro artfully draws the reader into the tale of Billy Gawronski, a dreamer and adventurer. Through the wild story of his travels to Antarctica, we see history come vividly to life.”
— Susan Orlean, bestselling author of Rin Tin Tin
“This fascinating and exciting story contrasts the optimism and sense of progress of the 1920s with the devastation of the 1930s…much to delight in here.”
— Library Journal
“In this true-life adventure yarn, filmmaker Shapiro reconstructs the story of Billy Gawronski, who captured the boundless optimism of the American national psyche in the lead up to the Great Depression when, in 1928, he attempted to stow away on a ship headed to the Antarctic … This coming-of-age story about a strong-willed boy with an insatiable appetite for adventure … will appeal to both adult and young adult readers.”
— Publishers Weekly