I went to a fantastic author event where author David Grann (who wrote Killers of the Flower Moon and The Wager) interviewed journalist Ross Halperin about his new true crime book Bear Witness: A Crusade for Justice in a Violent Land.
Ross is the son of Richard E. Halperin, a man who a local library building is named after, so it was pretty special to welcome Ross to the library for this event. The library had a restaurant come in and serve arepas with pork as well as drinks for purchase. They also had an awesome red velvet cake at the end which had a photo of the book cover on it. It was a very fancy after-hours event!
Bear Witness took Ross years to write and countless hours of research and interviews and cold calls, including the one he made to David Grann. The book is about two Christians, Kurt Van der Beek, an American sociologist, and Carlos Hernandez, a Honduran schoolteacher, who raised their families in Nueva Suyapa, a gang-run barrio in the mountains of Honduras. Kurt and Carlos were best friends who dedicated their lives to helping the poor and took matters into their own hands when it came to fighting back against the violence and injustice brought on by gang activity.
I have not yet read Halperin’s account of the events that unfolded, but I anxiously await the chance to do so.
Michelle’s Bookish Life 