Starring: Marilyn Monroe, Harry Chapin, Mark Twain, Patsy Cline, Will Rogers, Harry Houdini, Ella Fitzgerald, Karen Carpenter, and Harry Ducharme, plus a supporting cast of a thousand other ghosts.

Early Praise: “Larry Baker’s HARRY AND SUE is brilliant in many ways, but the first appearance of Marilyn Monroe’s ghost is surely the most dazzling entrance of any character in recent American fiction. Monroe as Tinker Bell, as magician, and eventually as a comic matchmaker is worth the price of admission all by itself.”–Patty Friedmann, author, Secondhand Smoke

“My name is Harry Mason, and I drive a taxi. This is a story about when I kissed Marilyn Monroe, sang songs with Harry Chapin and Patsy Cline, did rope tricks with Will Rogers, and watched Harry Houdini die. But they aren’t the important story. No, that’s about Sue, how I lost her, how I got her back. This is a love story. But I should warn you . . . it’s also a ghost story.”

Taxi driver Harry Mason is obsessed with the loss of his girlfriend, who left him for Hollywood and never came back. One rainy night he finds himself inside a boarded-up movie theatre, where he meets a cast of ghosts. From Houdini and Mark Twain to Will Rogers and Marilyn Monroe, Harry finds himself in a world where magical realism meets memories.

About the Author

Larry Baker writes about memorable characters, and he is something of a character himself.

Baker earned his doctorate at the University of Iowa and is a former member of the Iowa City Council. He is included on Iowa City’s Literary Walk and is the author of six novels.

He possesses an outsized personality that he employs gleefully, if self-mockingly, for the promotion of his work. He is by turns funny and erudite, and both characteristics find their way into his work.

Larry’s other books include The Flamingo Rising, A Good Man, The Education of Nancy Adams, It’s a God Thing!: Inspiring Stories of Life-Changing Friendships, and Athens, America.

This event will be moderated by Kali White VanBaale, a Des Moines-area creative writing professor and award-winning author of novels, short stories, essays, and articles. www.kaliwhite.com