Events › Omaha Reads: Theodore Wheeler Author Visit

Join us for a conversation with Theodore Wheeler, author of the 2024 Omaha Reads book, "The War Begins in Paris,” moderated by OPL Partnerships Manager Amy Mather, and followed by a Q & A session with the audience. Copies of "The War Begins in Paris" will be available for purchase and signing. Registration is required.

Parking Information:  Street parking is free in Downtown Omaha on Sundays.

All Omaha Public Library locations are wheelchair accessible. Need sign language interpretation or other accessibility assistance for this event? Please email Nancy Novotny at NNovotny@omahalibrary.org to request accommodation. Requests must be made at least five business days before the activity or event.

About the Book

Paris, 1938. Two women Mielle, a shy pacifist and shunned Mennonite who struggles to fit in with the elite cohort of foreign correspondents stationed around the city; the other, Jane, a brash, legendary American journalist, who is soon to become a fascist propagandist. When World War II makes landfall in the City of Lights, Mielle falls under Jane's spell, growing ever more intoxicated by her glamour, self-possession, and reckless confidence. But as this recklessness devolves into militarism and an utter lack of humanity, Mielle is seized by a series of visions that show her an inescapable Jane Anderson must die, and Mielle must be the one to kill her. 

Structured as a series of dispatches filed from around Europe and based on the misadventures of a real journalist-turned-Nazi mouthpiece, The War Begins in Paris is a cat-and-mouse suspense that examines the relentlessness of propaganda, the allure of power, and how far one woman will go for the sake of her morality.

Theodore Wheeler is the author of Kings of Broken Things and In Our Other Lives . His writing has been featured in The Southern Review , The Kenyon Review , Boulevard , Narrative , LitHub , and many more journals. He has won fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, Nebraska Arts Council, and Akademie Schloss Solitude in Stuttgart, Germany. He has received residencies and support from institutions including the Kimmel Harding Nelson Center for the Arts, AWP Intro Journals Award, Nebraska Book Awards.

Omaha Reads promotes literacy and provides the City with a common theme to discuss. One book is selected through a public vote and promoted through book talks, author visits, and related programs.

Copies of “The War Begins in Paris” can be reserved for checkout from the OPL catalog.