Join First Light Books on Friday, June 20, to celebrate the release of Karim Dimechkie's highly anticipated sophomore novel, THE UPROAR.

Tickets include a copy of THE UPROAR and a reserved seat at the event. Reserved seating is limited, and any unreserved standing room will be available on a first-come, first served basis. Free RSVPs are also encouraged.

About the book

Sharif is a good person. He knows that he is good because he's aware of the privilege that he holds as a white man. He knows he is good because he chose to be a social worker at a nonprofit in Brooklyn, scraping by in New York City. And he knows he is good because his wife, Adjoua, a progressive Black novelist, has always said so.

But Sharif's goodness doesn't protect him and Adjoua against bad luck. In an emergency, when they must find a new home for Judy, their beloved, unruly, giant dog before the imminent birth of their immunocompromised daughter, a desperate Sharif leaves Judy in the care of Emmanuel, an undocumented Haitian immigrant Sharif met through his social services nonprofit.

When Emmanuel agrees to take the dog, it is only a momentary relief. What begins as a dispute between the young couple and Emmanuel's teenage son soon draws both families into a maelstrom of unpredictable conflict. As tempers flare into a public uproar, escalating to social media and being taken up by law enforcement, the cracks in Sharif and Adjoua's marriage are exposed. The couple is forced to confront everything they thought they knew about race and empathy, while Sharif must question if he was ever good in the first place. Immersive and propulsive, THE UPROAR is the book we need to understand the moment we live in now.

About the authors

Karim's first novel, Lifted by the Great Nothing (Bloomsbury), was praised by NPR, the PEN/Hemingway Foundation, and Oprah.com. He was a fellow of the Michener Center for Writers at UT Austin, and has held residencies at the MacDowell Colony, The Anderson Center for the Arts, and the UCROSS Foundation. His writing can be found in The New York Times, The Saint Ann's Review, and Empirical Magazine's Best of Anthology. He lives between London and New York.

Karim will be joined in conversation by friend and fellow writer Katherine Noble. Katherine is a lesbian writer based in Richmond, Virginia. She writes about religion, queerness, and desire. Her work has been featured in Auctus, Beloved, body fluids lit, and WIREWORM, among other places. She writes long-form cultural criticism essays on her Substack, letters from kath.