Todd Kliman, international man of mystery (and restaurant critic)

Todd Kliman, relaxing at home

Yes, that is Todd Kliman's author photograph. 

Hope you like it.

We're delighted to welcome Todd to Unbound, but can't show you what he looks like, because - among his various other writing jobs - he is a restaurant critic, and so needs to keep his identity secret so that the dining establishments he visits don't see him coming. We've been assured that when he appears on stage on April 23, he won't be wearing a disguise. (Except: how will you know?)

Todd will be coming to Columbia to discuss writing about food and his marvelous book, The Wild Vine.  The Wild Vine tells the story of how the little-known Norton grape - grown right here by German immigrants in Missouri - stunned the fine-wine world of the nineteenth century, and its subsequent fall from those dizzying heights. It's an extraordinary story that comes right up to the present day.  As Pulitzer Prize-winner Robert Olen Butler says, the book combines "the best characteristics of history and memoir, biography and travelogue, [and] it is an utter delight."

Welcome, Todd! We're not quite sure how we're going to find you at the airport, but we're working on that.