Richard B. Wright signs autographs for excited fans.

The Grimsby Author Series has come to a close.

The finale on Wednesday, April 23 featured Richard B. Wright, the famed author of the Giller Prize Winner Clara Callan, who was there to promote his recent novel, October.

The elegant and gracious Casablanca Inn was the perfect setting for the night, 235 tickets were sold and the place was filled with excited fans.

Walking in, guests were greeted to the jazz house band stylings of Angela Maccaroni and two Blessed Trinity student musicians. The room was buzzing with eager chatter right up until the introduction. Guests were taking full advantage of the plentiful hors d'oeuvres and wine.

Ken Boichuk introduced Wright as "edgy and controversial. His books have been on such topics as adultery, euthanasia, and economic distress."

Wright jumped right into his talk by introducing the book.

In England to see his daughter, Susan, who is gravely ill, James Hillyer, a retired professor of Victorian literature, encounters by chance a man he once knew as a boy. Gabriel Fontaine, a rich and attractive American he met one summer during the war, when he was sent on a holiday to the Gaspé, is a mercurial figure, badly crippled by polio.

As an adolescent, James was both attracted to and repelled by Gabriel's cocksure attitude and charm. He also fell hopelessly in love with Odette, a French- Canadian girl from the village, only to find himself in competition with the careless Gabriel.

Now, at this random meeting over six decades later - as he struggles with the terrible possibility that he could outlive his own daughter - James is asked by Gabriel to accompany him on a final, unthinkable journey. At last, James begins to see that all beginnings and endings are inexorably linked. October is a meditation on mortality, childhood and memory.

The passage Wright chose to read is taken from a flashback in the life of the main character. It is filled with teenage angst - and it's remarkable how Richard pinpoints exactly the mindset of teenagers. It is rich with setting and description.

Wright talks about how important characters are to him in his stories. "They are paramount in what I write. Often in my books there isn't even much plot - it's all about the characters."

Following the entrancing reading, there was a brief question and answer period. Inquiries included how Wright came up with subjects for writing, and just how he captured the female psyche so perfectly in Clara Callan. To all of these questions Wright gave detailed, ironic and insightful answers, saying subjects come to him, and that every author needs to imagine what it is like to be someone else.

The night concluded with Wright signing autographs.