VIRTUE WITH VICE

Anti-heroes have a long history in literature — ask John Milton, who first gave us sympathy for the Devil — and they work particularly well in noir fiction, where shady acts are justified by shaky ethics. Trudging through such uncertain ground is Adam Sternbergh’s Spademan, the garbage-man psycho who roved a dystopian NYC in his debut novel, Shovel Ready, and again in his follow-up, Near Enemy. Join Sternbergh at McNally Jackson in a conversation with novelist Megan Abbot and media critics Emily Nussbaum and A.O. Scott as they consider what, exactly, makes antiheroes tick…and what makes them finally explode.

Tue., Jan. 27, 7 p.m., 2015