Author Yiyun Li talks with Weike Wang about her novel 'Music Against the Night' in the Free Library of Philadelphia's Author Events Series.
Yiyun Li is coming to the Parkway Central Library on Tuesday, October 20, at 7 PM. She'll be in conversation with writer Weike Wang about her novel Music Against the Night, part of the Free Library of Philadelphia's Author Events Series.
If you're not familiar with the book, it opens in Dublin as the eighteenth century nears its end. It follows John Field, an awkward and sensitive child who is preternaturally gifted. From there, it's a story about a life shaped by music and the particular kind of isolation that comes with it.
This is a booking the library has been working toward for a while. They'd been hoping to bring the Pulitzer Prize winner to the series since her 2025 memoir, Things in Nature Merely Grow, which wrote about her son's suicide and had a limited touring schedule. The memoir is a heavy, personal piece of work, so seeing her here to talk about a novel—and with Weike Wang as her conversation partner—should be a different kind of evening.
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The talk is part of the Author Events Series, which has been curated by Daniel Blank, managing director of public programs, since 2024. He's standardized the pricing at $5 per event, and this one falls within the library's Community Impact Week. Tickets are $5, and the conversation starts at 7 PM at the Parkway Central Library, 1901 Vine Street.
