BELFAST — Left Bank Books, in downtown Belfast, invites the public to a free talk and book signing on Friday, Sept. 27, at 6 p.m., by Brown University professor and author Ieva Jusionyte, who has most recently written Exit Wounds: How America’s Guns Fuel Violence Across the Border.

Her book examines how America’s guns have entangled the lives of people on both sides of the US-Mexico border in a vicious circle of violence. A trained EMT, paramedic, and wildland firefighter, Jusionyte has treated wounded migrants and refugees seeking safety in the United States.

“Exit Wounds is an expert work of narrative nonfiction in which Jusionyte masterfully weaves together the stories of people who live and work with guns on both sides of the border: a Mexican businessman who smuggles guns for protection, a teenage girl turned trained assassin, and a journalist who risks his life to report on organized crime,” said a news release. “The book expands current debates about guns in America, grappling with US complicity in violence on both sides of the border.”

When asked how she hopes Exit Wounds might inform the way Americans think about the US-Mexico border, Jusionyte has said: “We wouldn’t be seeing so many migrants and asylum seekers crossing the US southern border if it weren’t for the weapons going south. Exit Wounds shows how this vicious circle of violence — drugs, guns, refugees — works. My hope is that understanding these connections can help us find solutions that are more effective than investing in border walls and surveillance cameras and detention centers.”

Jusionyte is a legal and medical anthropologist and professor at Brown University. A recipient of a Fulbright Fellowship, a National Science Foundation Award, and a Harvard Radcliffe Fellowship, she has been studying borders, violence, and security in Latin America and the U.S. for more than fifteen years.

Reservations for this free event may be made by calling Left Bank Books (207-338-9009) or emailing info@leftbankbookshop.com. There is ample free parking in front of the bookshop and in an adjacent public lot.