Please join us on Sunday, April 29 at 3pm, as April Bernard reads from, takes questions, and signs Miss Fuller: A Novel.

She was the most famous woman in America.  And nobody knew who she was.

It is 1850.  Margaret Fuller - feminist, journalist, orator - is returning from Europe where she covered the Italian revolution for The New York Tribune.  She is bringing home with her an Italian husband, the Count Ossoli, and their two-year-old son. 

But this is not the gala return of a beloved American heroine.  This is a furtive, impoverished return under a cloud of suspicion and controversy.  When the ship founders in a hurricane and her small family drown, friends back home, Ralph Waldo Emerson and others of the Transcendentalist Concord circle, send Henry David Thoreau to the wreck in hopes of recovering her last manuscript.  

He comes back declaring himself empty-handed - but actually he has found a private and revealing document, a confession in letters, of a strong and beloved woman's life like no other in the 19th century. 

Miss Fuller, a richly imagined historical novel inspired by the passion and drama of a singular life, shows the price that any one person might pay, who strives to change the world for the better.

April Bernard is a novelist, poet, and essayist.  Her books include the novel Pirate Jenny and the poetry collections Romanticism, Blackbird Bye Bye, Psalms, and Swan Electric. She is Director of Creative Writing at Skidmore College and is on the faculty of the Bennington MFA Writing Seminars.

We enjoyed a lovely afternoon Sunday, as Dawn Tripp read from, and took question on, her novel The Season of Open Water, which was selected as the town-wide community read for Dedham earlier this year.

The novel is set in Westport, Massachusetts during the years of prohibition. The protagonist is Bridge Weld, a boat-builder's granddaughter - strikingly beautiful and head-strong.

When her brother, Luce, gets involved in the rum-running trade, the consequences of his actions have far-reaching effect, forever changing the landscape of the family's future.

Dawn Tripp writes from a background of poetry, which is reflected in her precise, poetic prose. This is a superb novel about a family and the lawlessness of the heart, a love story that explores the often inescapable connections between violence and desire.

If you were unable to attend the event - or wish to revisit the wonderful reading - please view the video of our event with Dawn Tripp, courtesy Frank Breen at Carlisle Video.

We have signed copies of The Season of Open Water and Game of Secrets on our shelves.

"... such breathlessly readable narrative enjoyment, such page-by-page storytelling confidence and solidity. Boyd has a positive genius for pace and description."

-- The Independent

"Cash's novel explores Faulkner-O'Connor country . . . [it] resonates perfectly ... An evocative work about love, fate and redemption." 

 -- Kirkus Reviews

" [A] revitalizing blast of original thought; robust invention; screwball giddiness.... a family story that's out-of-the-box, and funny, and, also, genuinely moving." 

-- NPR.org