Calendar

Hear from Western Pennsylvania native Idra Novey about her new novel, 'Take What You Need.'

In her most powerful book yet, award-winning writer Idra Novey has conjured a novel of “astonishing and singular” honesty (Rumaan Alam) with two determined, unforgettable female voices.

Set in Western Pennsylvania near Johnstown where Idra Novey grew up and where her family has lived for more than a hundred years, Take What You Need traces the parallel lives of Jean, and her beloved but estranged stepdaughter, Leah, who’s sought a clean break from her rural childhood. With Jean’s death, Leah returns to sort through what’s been left behind. What she discovers is staggering. Jean has filled the house with giant sculptures she’s welded from scraps of the area’s industrial history. And there is a young man living in the house who’s played an unknown role in Jean’s last years and in her art.