Russo work chosen for Boston Book Festival’s One Story program

June 21, 2011|By Steve Miller, Globe Correspondent

Richard Russos The Whores Child will be available for free around town. (elena siebert )

It’s like a book club — with over 600,000 of your closest friends.

Boston Book Festival’s One City, One Story program is back for round two after a successful first go at catalyzing a city-wide literary discussion with last year’s inaugural installment. In late September 2010, leading up to Boston’s annual celebration of all things bound and bookish, urbanites could find copies of Belmont-based author Tom Perrotta’s story “The Smile on Happy Chang’s Face’’ lying about community centers, MBTA stations, and library branches — all free for the taking.

This year, the far less-sunny sounding selection is “The Whore’s Child,’’ by Richard Russo, a Pulitzer Prize-winning wordsmith who splits his time between Maine and Massachusetts. Come September, copies of the short story will start popping up around town. Once again, free for the taking and, more importantly, the reading.

“In other cities that do this kind of thing, you have to buy the book or take it out at the library,’’ said Deborah Z. Porter, the festival’s founder and executive director. “I didn’t think any of those were truly all-city book groups.’’ Porter was looking to create a more inclusive and accessible experience with One City, One Story. And it worked pretty well, she said, with over 200 people coming together for the main discussion during last year’s festival.

“People really showed up wanting to talk,’’ Porter said. “The story had so much depth. There were so many angles at which to approach it.’’ But Porter pointed out that One City, One Story still has a ways to go in reaching its goal of all-city literary proliferation. “Did we succeed in getting diverse communities to participate?’’ she asked. “Not yet.’’

As was the case with Perrotta’s story, “The Whore’s Child’’ will be available in various translations on the festival website in the hope of breaking down the language barrier and attracting readers that bridge Boston’s diverse demographics. “The Whore’s Child’’ is a mise en abyme of sorts, following Sister Ursula, a timid, 90-year-old nun who joins a university-level advanced writing workshop and pens a memoir of her life spent in the psychologically abusive confines of the local convent.