Author Matthew Thomas (We Are Not Ourselves) came to St. Francis College March 9, 2015 to help celebrate St. Patrick's Day with a reading and discussion of his New York Times Bestselling book.

Watch the Matthew Thomas Reading

The novel, about an Irish family in Queens, has a strong connection to St. Francis College, as Matthew's family member Ronald Thomas '64 is an alumnus of the College and several scenes in the book may have been inspired by Ronald's time at St. Francis.

About We Are Not Ourselves
Born in 1941, Eileen Tumulty is raised by her Irish immigrant parents in Woodside, Queens, in an apartment where the mood swings between heartbreak and hilarity, depending on whether guests are over and how much alcohol has been consumed.

When Eileen meets Ed Leary, a scientist whose bearing is nothing like those of the men she grew up with, she thinks she's found the perfect partner to deliver her to the cosmopolitan world she longs to inhabit. They marry, and Eileen quickly discovers Ed doesn't aspire to the same, ever bigger, stakes in the American Dream.

Biography
Matthew Thomas was born in the Bronx and grew up in Queens. A graduate of the University of Chicago, he has an MA from the Writing Seminars at Johns Hopkins University and an MFA from the University of California, Irvine. His New York Times bestselling novel We Are Not Ourselves has been shortlisted for the Flaherty-Dunnan First Novel Prize from the Center for Fiction, long listed for the Guardian First Book Award, and nominated for the Folio Prize.