https://akronlibrary.libnet.info/event/16453200

Robert Ross discusses his new novel “Revival” about a scheming preacher’s 1984 Akron tent revival where desperate locals converge chasing redemption—but find something far more shocking.

Robert Scott Ross, an Akron native, attended Rimer Elementary, Innes Middle School, and St. Vincent-St. Mary High School. He is dean of libraries at Ohio University and holds an MFA in creative writing from the University of New Orleans.

“Revival” synopsis:

“By the summer of 1984, televangelism has driven religious revivals to the brink of extinction. Struggling to make ends meet, charismatic preacher Elliot Prescott Chipps and his troupe of traveling revival performers will do anything to fill their collection plates. Putting down stakes in Akron, Ohio, the revival draws desperate and curious locals with its exotic music, acts of healing, and promise of eternal salvation. But Chipps, dissatisfied with the pittance of tithes, has a bigger score in mind.

Over the course of five days, a bewildered boy, a pool-hustling alcoholic, a deluded beard, an unstable pianist, a deadbeat dad, a jilted young woman, a lovelorn local pastor, an estranged singer, and a nihilistic conman converge under the revival’s golden tent seeking something they’ve lost. What they’ll find is a revelation none of them could have foreseen.”- Amazon

A book sale and signing will follow the reading and discussion.