What forces-both internal and external-cause a mind to dangerously fray and unravel? For the groundbreaking scientists in Chilean author Benjamin Labatut’s When We Cease to Understand the World (translated by Adrian Nathan West), knowledge comes at a high cost. In Brazilian writer Beatriz Bracher’s Antonio (translated by Adam Morris), meanwhile, social constraints and family secrets combine to doom an idealistic, wayward son to madness; and in Catalan poet Eva Baltasar’s debut novel, Permafrost (translated by Julia Sanches), a fiercely independent woman’s search for personal freedom nearly drives her over the edge. Moderated by author and translator Adrian Nathan West. Co-presented with the Nashville/Southern Festival of Books.
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