LA TIMES COLUMNIST SPEAKS AT JOSEPH-BETH BOOKSELLERS
Sunday, February 8, 2009
5 p.m.
2692 Madison Rd., Norwood
(513) 396-8960

Journalist/columnist Steve Lopez discusses and signs The Soloist: A Lost Dream, an Unlikely Friendship, and the Redemptive Power of Music, the true story of Lopez's discovery of Nathaniel Ayers, a former classical music student at Julliard, playing a two-string violin on Los Angeles Skid Row.

It's an intimate portrait of mental illness, of atrocious social neglect, and the struggle to resurrect a fallen prodigy.

Deeply affected by the beauty of Ayers music, Lopez took it upon himself to change the prodigy's life, only to find that their relationship had a profound change on his own life. A California native, Lopez joined the staff of the Los Angeles Times in May 2001 after four years at Time Inc., where he wrote for Time, Sports Illustrated, Life, and Entertainment Weekly.

His work has won numerous national journalism awards for column writing and magazine reporting.

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