Seven portraits. Seven artists. Seven girls and women reading. 

A young orphan poses nervously for a Renaissance maestro in medieval Siena. An artist's servant girl in seventeenth-century Amsterdam snatches a moment away from her work to lose herself in tales of knights and battles. An eighteenth century female painter completes a portrait of a deceased poetess for her lover.  A Victorian medium poses with a book in one of the first photographic studios. A girl suffering her first heartbreak witnesses intellectual and sexual awakening during the Great War. A young woman reading in a bar catches the eye of a young man who takes her picture.  And in the not-so-distant future a woman navigates the rapidly developing cyber-reality that has radically altered the way people experience art and the way they live.

Each chapter of Katie Ward's kaleidoscopic novel takes us into a perfectly imagined tale of how each portrait came to be, and as the connections accumulate, the narrative leads us into the present and beyond. In gorgeous prose Ward explores our points of connection, our relationship to art, the history of women, and the importance of reading.  This dazzlingly inventive novel that surprises and satisfies announces the career of a brilliant new writer.

"...gritty, as well as deadpan and often very comic...DeWitt has chosen a narrative voice so sharp and distinctive...its very narrowing of possibilities opens new doors in the imagination." 

-- New York Times Book Review 

Did you enjoy watching The Old Curiosity Shop on PBS' Masterpiece earlier this month? Revisit the classic with a reading of Dickens. Be sure to take a look at our display of the work of Charles Dickens, who is our "Author of the Month."

One of Dickens's most haunting and bizarre novels, The Old Curiosity Shop is the story of "Little Nell" and her persecution by the grotesque and lecherous Quilp. It is a shifting kaleidoscope of events and characters as the story reaches its tragic climax, an ending that famously devastated the novel's earliest readers. 

Dickens blends naturalistic and allegorical styles to encompass both the actual blight of Victorian industrialization and textual echoes of Bunyan, the Romantic poets, Shakespeare, pantomine, and Jacobean tragedy. 

This edition uses the Clarendon text, the definitive edition of the novels of Charles Dickens, and includes the original illustrations.  

The Nature Connection (formerly known as Animals As Intermediaries, AAI) brings animal and nature programs to people with limited access to the natural world.  Founded over 25 years ago, The Nature Connection connects individuals with nature's capacity to heal and to teach.

Join The Nature Connection and naturalist Marcia Wilson for an afternoon with live owls! Take part in a hooting lesson and learn tips on how to attract and protect owls near you. Marcia Wilson and former Boston Globe photographer Mark Wilson bring 35 years' experience and a lifelong passion for these wild and wise creatures.

Eyes on Owls will be presented on Sunday March 11 at the Alcott School auditorium; there are two shows, at 1 and 3pm.

Advance tickets are available:

• Purchase Tickets Online
• By Phone: 978-369-2585
• In Person: The Concord Bookshop (at our front desk)

$15 adults/ $10 children ($35 max. per family).  

Proceeds directly support The Nature Connection's programs.