Book Passage Presents

David Mitchell

in conversation with Michael Chabon

Utopia Avenue

Hosted by Tom Barbash

Recorded: 07/16/2020

Book Passage Presents

David Mitchell

in conversation with Michael Chabon

Utopia Avenue

Hosted by Tom Barbash

Recorded: 07/16/2020

Join celebrated authors David Mitchell and Michael Chabon for a one-of-a-kind, personal conversation about writing, reading, and living in these unprecedented times.

This live session, hosted by Tom Barbash, takes place on the occasion of David’s new book, Utopia Avenue. 

Utopia Avenue is the long-awaited new novel from the bestselling, prize-winning author of Cloud Atlas and The Bone Clocks.

“Enchanting, boisterous, and thoroughly enjoyable …. Utopia Avenue is the magical, musical escape we desperately need.” Daily Beast

Utopia Avenue is the strangest British band you’ve never heard of. Emerging from London’s psychedelic scene in 1967, and fronted by folk singer Elf Holloway, blues bassist Dean Moss and guitar virtuoso Jasper de Zoet, Utopia Avenue embarked on a meteoric journey from the seedy clubs of Soho, a TV debut on Top of the Pops, the cusp of chart success, glory in Amsterdam, prison in Rome, and a fateful American sojourn in the Chelsea Hotel, Laurel Canyon, and San Francisco during the autumn of ’68.

David Mitchell’s kaleidoscopic novel tells the unexpurgated story of Utopia Avenue’s turbulent life and times; of fame’s Faustian pact and stardom’s wobbly ladder; of the families we choose and the ones we don’t; of voices in the head, and the truths and lies they whisper; of music, madness, and idealism. Can we really change the world, or does the world change us?

David Mitchell

About David Mitchell

David Mitchell is the author of the novels Ghostwritten, number9dream, Cloud Atlas, Black Swan Green, The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet, The Bone Clocks, and Slade House. Twice shortlisted for the Booker Prize, in 2018 he won the Sunday Times Award for Literary Excellence.

Michael Chabon

About Michael Chabon

Michael Chabon is the bestselling and Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Mysteries of Pittsburgh, A Model World, Wonder Boys, Werewolves in their Youth, The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay, Summerland, The Final Solution, The Yiddish Policemen’s Union, Maps & Legends, Gentlemen of the Road, Telegraph Avenue, Moonglow, and the picture book The Astonishing Secret of Awesome Man.

He lives in Berkeley, California with his wife, the novelist Ayelet Waldman, and their children.

Tom Barbash

About Tom Barbash

Tom Barbash is the author of the award-winning novel, The Last Good Chance, which was was awarded the California Book Award, and the short story collection Stay Up With Me, which was a national bestseller and was nominated for the Folio Prize. His nonfiction book, On Top of the World: Cantor Fitzgerald, Howard Lutnick, and 9/11: A Story of Loss and Renewal, was a New York Times bestseller.

He currently teaches in the MFA program at California College of the Arts. He grew up on the Upper West Side of Manhattan and currently lives in Marin County.

Frequently Asked Questions

If you’d like a refund, we can happily credit the card you used to register for the event. Please send a note to pre.event@extendedsession.com, and we’ll confirm receipt as soon as we see it (We don’t need your credit card info – just your email address and date of purchase.)

There are two things to know:

  • Unfortunately, we can only accept cancellations and refunds up to 48 hours before a scheduled event.
  • There is sure to be a lapse in time between the time we refund your order and the time a corresponding credit appears on your credit card statement. So that you’re not left waiting and wondering, we’ll contact you as soon as we’ve processed the credit in our system.

If you’ve purchased a ticket for this online event and you find that for some reason you can’t make the live event, we’ve got you covered:

We’ll make an archive of this event available within 48 hours of the live event, and we’ll send every ticket holder details on how they can view it.

Ticket holders can view this full event archive any time they like – as often as they like.

We take data security and your privacy as seriously as you do.

That’s why we use Stripe to process your registration transaction. They take your credit card and secure your data – in fact we don’t even have access to your credit card number. Which is just the way we like it!

The information we do retain we protect carefully.

We’re committed to keeping personal information collected from those individuals who visit our website and make use of our online programming and services confidential, secure, and private. Our privacy policy ensures that we meet – and when we can – exceed most existing privacy standards.

Want to know more? Read the ExtendedSession Online Privacy Policy Agreement.

Still have a question? We’d be please to hear from you:

Still have a question? We’d be please to hear from you: pre.event@extendedsession.com.

.

The receipt you receive via email immediately after you register is all you need to know you’re set for the upcoming event.

About 48 hours before the live event is scheduled to begin, we’ll send you a personalized email confirming everything’s on schedule and containing easy instructions for accessing the event.

We’ll send another reminder on the day of the event itself, and we’ll be available online just before the event begins to make sure you have no problems joining when the time is right.

If you’ve not received confirmation of your purchase, it’s not because we haven’t sent it. In fact, we send a confirmation right away to make sure that we can reach you with event details.

If you haven’t received a confirmation, check your “junk” or “promotions” email first — some people’s email programs group unfamiliar emails in these types of folders. The email date and time should match closely the time you purchased your ticket online.

If the confirmation email is not there, there’s a small possibility that your email address wasn’t entered as you intended when you registered (You’d be surprised, but this happens). If we don’t have your proper email address, we can’t contact you.

In any case, if you can’t find your confirmation email, please send us a note at pre.event@extendedsession.com. We’ll get back to you right away!