On a cold and stormy Friday night, the Novel Idea book was unveiled to a crowd of more than 200 eager readers at the downtown Bend Library. The 2014 “A Novel Idea” selection is Dog Stars by author Peter Heller.

“Dog Stars is a novel that centers around a soulful hero, Hig, as he lives through a grim and frightening post-apocalyptic world and finds his way to hope and love again,” said Novel Idea Project Director Chantal Strobel. “We believe our readers will find much to discuss in this poetic book and are excited to offer it to our communities throughout Deschutes County.”

The Novel Idea events kick-off Saturday, April 12 at the downtown Bend Library and more than 20 programs are planned throughout Deschutes County. The Novel Idea events will culminate with presentations from author Peter Heller at the Tower Theatre on Friday, May 2 and Sisters High School on Saturday, May 3.

“Now in our 11th year, ‘A Novel Idea’ is a beloved county-wide event with more than 6,000 residents reading, discussing, and engaging in programs throughout Deschutes County,” said Strobel. “We are proud to continue to lead the state with the largest community read program.”

Dog Stars is available in a variety of formats to check out at all of the Deschutes Public Library branches in downtown Bend, East Bend, La Pine, Redmond, Sisters, and Sunriver. Free kits for book clubs will become available in March. Book clubs are encouraged to sign up now by contacting Liz Goodrich, lizg@deschuteslibrary.org.

About the book: Hig survived the flu that killed everyone he knows. His wife is gone, his friends are dead, he lives in the hangar of a small abandoned airport with his dog, Jasper. Hig’s only neighbor is a gun-toting misanthrope named Bangley. In his 1956 Cessna, Hig flies the perimeter of the airfield or sneaks off to the mountains to fish and pretend that things are the way they used to be. But when a random transmission somehow beams through his radio, the voice ignites a hope deep inside him that a better life – something like his old life – exists beyond the airport. Risking everything, he flies past his point of no return, following the trail of the static-broken voice on the radio. What he then encounters, is both better and worse than anything he could have hoped for. (excerpt from Peter Heller website: www.peterheller.net)

About the author:
Peter Heller holds an MFA from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop in both fiction and poetry. An award-winning adventure writer and longtime contributor to NPR, Heller is a contributing editor at Outside magazine, Men’s Journal, and National Geographic Adventure, and a regular contributor to Bloomberg Business Week. He is also the author of several nonfiction books, including Kook, The Whale Warriors, and Hell or High Water: Surviving Tibet’s Tsangpo River. Dog Stars is his first work of fiction. He lives in Denver, Colorado.

A Novel Idea is made possible by the generous donors of the Deschutes Public Library Foundation, Bend Research, Bend Bulletin, Francis Hansen & Martin law firm, Oregon Humanities, the Roundhouse Foundation, and the E.H. & M.E. Bowerman Advised Fund of the Oregon Community Foundation, and the Oregon Arts Commission.

For more information about A Novel Idea, please check out the “A Novel Idea” website at www.deschuteslibrary.org/events/novelidea/ for event listings and author information.