MARQUETTE, Mich.—Author Tim O'Brien, whose The Things They Carried is this year’s One Book, One Community selection, will discuss his book and answer audience questions during a visit to Northern Michigan University. The event will be held at 7 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 7, in the Great Lakes Rooms of the University Center. It is open to the public. Admission is free to NMU students with an ID and $10 for non-students.

The Things They Carried is a fictional series of linked stories about a platoon of American soldiers in the Vietnam War. It was published in 1990 and was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Critics Circle Award. O'Brien mined his experiences as a foot soldier in Vietnam to examine the myriad effects of war on man: fighting, waiting, monotony and the aftermath.

One Book, One Community is designed to bring Marquette County residents and NMU students together to read and discuss the same book.

O’Brien’s presentation is sponsored by NMU student chapters of the Marquette Alger Reading Council and Sigma Tau Delta, along with the NMU student finance committee, the English department and Marquette General Hospital. For more information, visit www.nmu.edu/onebook.