Carol Anshaw will read from her new novel, Carry the One, at 7 p.m. Tuesday, April 10, in Prairie Lights Books and on a live stream at the University of Iowa Writing University website, www.writinguniversity.org.

This tough and tender comedy of misplaced love and beguiling characters begins with a wedding. Pregnant Carmen, a tireless professional do-gooder, is marrying Matt, a volunteer at the suicide hotline she runs. Nick, her crazy astronomer brother, is wearing a wedding dress; his date, Olivia, is wearing a tux; and they've brought enough drugs to get all of Wisconsin stoned.

Carmen's sister, Alice, an artist, falls for Matt's sister, Maude. Utterly wasted, Nick, Olivia, Alice, Maude, and a folk singer start driving back to Chicago, but their car strikes and kills a young girl. Forever after they are subjected to the relentless mathematics of guilt: When you add us up, you always have to carry the one.

Emma Donoghue, bestselling author of Room, praised the book for presenting "passion and addiction, guilt and damage, all the beautiful mess of family life. Carry the One will lift readers off their feet."

Anshaw is the author of Aquamarine and Seven Moves, both Lambda Award finalists. She has won the Carl Sandburg Award, the Society of Midland Authors Award, and a creative writing fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts. A recipient of the National Book Critics Circle Citation for Excellence in Reviewing, she reviews books for major newspapers nationwide.

For more information or special accommodations to attend, call Jan Weissmiller at 319-337-2681.