The Center for Fiction Presents Tom Perrotta on Ghost Town with Teddy Wayne

Clear

Thursday, 7:00 pm EDT April 30, 2026

The Center for Fiction
& Livestreamed

Join us for an evening with celebrated author Tom Perrotta (Little Children, The Leftovers, Election) as he discusses his new novel, Ghost Town, a darkly nostalgic and gripping tale of grief, adolescence, and the long shadows of the past.

In Ghost Town, Perrotta brings his signature insight and wit to a story, set in 1970s suburban New Jersey, that explores the complicated terrain of memory, class, and coming of age. The novel follows Jimmy Perrini, who, in the wake of a personal tragedy at the end of eighth grade, drifts into troubling friendships with a local burnout and an eccentric girl whose Ouija board offers an escape from grief. Narrated by a much older Jimmy, the book examines how the past lingers, how childhood ghosts shape adulthood, and how we reckon with the choices and events that define us.

Perrotta will be joined in conversation by award-winning novelist Teddy Wayne (The Winner, The Love Song of Jonny Valentine) for an exploration of memory, writing suburbia, and how fiction highlights the small dramas and profound losses of our lives.

We offer two in-person ticket options: the $10 Standard Ticket and the $40+ Supporter Ticket. Both provide the same access, but if you’re able, we kindly suggest registering for the Supporter Ticket to help sustain our programs. Please note that tickets do not include books; we encourage you to order in advance online or purchase copies at the event.

Featuring

Tom Perrotta

Tom Perrotta

Tom Perrotta is the author of eleven works of fiction, including Election and Little Children, both of which were made into Oscar-nominated films, and The Leftovers and Mrs. Fletcher, which were adapted into acclaimed HBO series. His new novel is Ghost Town.

Photo Credit: Beowulf Sheehan
Teddy Wayne

Teddy Wayne

Teddy Wayne is the author of the novels The Au Pair (forthcoming June 30, 2026), The Winner, The Great Man Theory, Apartment, Loner, The Love Song of Jonny Valentine, and Kapitoil. He is the winner of a Whiting Writers’ Award and an NEA Creative Writing Fellowship as well as a finalist for the Young Lions Fiction Award, PEN/Bingham Prize, and Dayton Literary Peace Prize. A former columnist for the New York Times and McSweeney’s and a frequent contributor to the New Yorker, he has taught at Columbia University and Washington University in St. Louis. He has developed films and series from his novels with Columbia Pictures, HBO, MGM Television, and others. He lives in Brooklyn with his wife, the writer Kate Greathead, and their children.

Photo Credit: Tracy Pennoyer

Featured Book

.

Ghost Town

By Tom Perrotta

Published by Scribner

PURCHASE

Jimmy Perrini lives in 1970s suburban New Jersey, a few miles from Manhattan, but a world apart. At the end of eighth grade, after tragedy strikes, Jimmy finds himself lost in a fog of grief that alienates him from friends and family, drifting instead into troubling friendships with two older teenagers: one a notorious local burnout with a fast car, an endless supply of weed, and a shaky grasp of reality; the other a smart, eccentric girl, whom Jimmy finds himself drawn to as they become entranced by her Ouija board, which may just offer the only salve to their grief.

As a fateful public drama unfolds, Jimmy is torn between the occult beyond and the cold realities of the place he has called home. Narrated by a much older Jimmy, a literary-turned-commercial novelist, Ghost Town reveals how the past haunts the present—the way our ghosts are always with us, even when we think we’ve left them behind.