Author Event! Michelle Brafman with Dylan Landis! DRAW NEAR TO ME

Schedule

Tue Oct 20 2026 at 06:00 pm to 07:00 pm

UTC-07:00
Location

1113 Montana Ave | Santa Monica, CA

Advertisement
Michelle Brafman joins Dylan Landis to discuss DRAW NEAR TO ME, the sequel to SWIMMING WITH GHOSTS, about family, betrayal and forgiveness.
About this Event

In this highly-anticipated sequel to Swimming with Ghosts, the discovery of a desperately-hidden secret brings a family to the brink of collapse--the exact place where they may ultimately find true healing and forgiveness.

One day before a freak accident lands devoted wife and mother Kristy Weinstein in a coma, her husband, David, discovers a devastating secret she'd been keeping for months. While Kristy sleeps, the Weinstein family experiences both heartache and miracles they never could have imagined for themselves. A hospital chaplain with an unforgettable voice and magical powers visits Kristy, eliciting hidden memories and future visions she needs to recover from her destructive love addiction.

While Kristy's life hangs in the balance, broken-hearted David, a high-risk OB with a God complex, must grapple with his pride and demons in order make impossible decisions about his career, wife, and the new baby that has served as a joyful family distraction from the roiling tensions stemming from Kristy's betrayal. Kristy and David's college-aged daughter Mia, nicknamed "Scoop," clashes with her family as she tries to solve the mystery of the events leading up to her mother's coma, and Patrick, Kristy's half-brother, fights to hold on to his sobriety and his beloved fianc e while he nearly crumbles under the fear of losing his sister and the responsibility of showing up for Kristy's family.

Ultimately, Kristy's coma serves as the catalyst for each family member to find kinship in surprising places and to heal old wounds by drawing near those who have damaged them the most. This is a timely story about the emotional and spiritual work it takes to repair an impossible rupture in a marriage, a relationship, a family, and in turn the larger communities in which we live, hope, and love.

Michelle Brafman is the author of Washing the Dead, Bertrand Court, and Swimming with Ghosts, the companion novel to Draw Near to Me. Her work has appeared in Oprah Daily, O Quarterly, Slate, LitHub, Tablet, The Forward, and elsewhere. She’s taught fiction writing in the Johns Hopkins University MA in Writing Program and spoken about her work and the creative process at more than 200 venues. Learn more at michellebrafman.com.

Dylan Landis is the author of three works of fiction set in 1970s and '80s Greenwich Village: the novels in stories List of All Possible Desires and Normal People Don't Live Like This and the novel Rainey Royal, a New York Times Editors' Choice. Her stories and essays have appeared in O. Henry Prize Stories, Harper's Magazine, Best American Nonrequired Reading and elsewhere. She lives in LA.

Advertisement

Where is it happening?

1113 Montana Ave, 1113 Montana Avenue, Santa Monica, United States

Event Location & Nearby Stays:

Tickets

USD 0.00

Know what’s Happening Next — before everyone else does.
Zibby's Bookshop
Host or PublisherZibby's Bookshop

Ask AI if this event suits you