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Reunion            EmersonT


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George Harrar

Paula Champa


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March 15, 2013

Greetings:

We have two terrific novels for your book club this month:

-A small town newspaperman's predictable life is disrupted by a series of increasingly menacing messages in George Harrar's Reunion at Red Paint Bay, a psychological drama set in Maine.

-Four strangers come together in search of a classic car engine in  Paula Champa's The Afterlife of Emerson Tang.

Enjoy!

Judy Gelman and Vicki Levy Krupp
[email protected]
bookclubcookbook.com 

FirstBlock
 
Reunion Reunion at Red Paint Bay
by George Harrar

Fiction / 208 pages / Paperback

Other Press / June, 2013

  

Dear Reader,

A friend received an anonymous letter inviting him to a restaurant for dinner to repay him for something he had done long ago. He went and recognized a boyhood pal who had needed a small loan to get him out of a jam, with parents none the wiser. It was time to repay the kindness.

Would you have gone, knowing that being repaid for a past act could mean retribution? Curiosity would drive most of us to show up, I think, but aren't there small transgressions in our lives, perhaps buried in our memories, that could come back to haunt us?Harrar

So it is for my main character, a newspaper editor in Red Paint, the self-proclaimed friendliest town in Maine. As he confronts his past he wonders: Should we be judged on the worst things we may have done in our lives?

Welcome to Red Paint Bay!

George Harrar
georgeharrarbooks.com 

 

GEORGE HARRAR IS GIVING AWAY 5 COPIES OF REUNION AT RED PAINT BAY.  ENTER TO WIN A COPY.
 
About Reunion at Red Paint Bay:

 
Red Paint is a town where not much ever happens, so when Simon Howe begins to receive menacing postcards from an anonymous sender, he tries to ignore them.  But the implied danger soon becomes more real, threatening to engulf his wife and son as well. The Howe family becomes engaged in a full-scale psychological battle with their unidentified stalker without even knowing it. Secrets from Simon's past are uncovered, escalating toward a tense and unexpected climax.

More than a conventional mystery or thriller, Reunion at Red Paint Bay is an exploration of the consequences of guilt, denial, and
moral absolutism.

Reviews of Reunion at Red Paint Bay :  

           

"Harrar tackles some big issues here, notably vengeance, guilt, and absolution. This is tightly written psychological suspense. Harrar is one of those writers on the verge of connecting with a much larger audience; this could be his moment."

-Booklist

"Harrar skillfully echoes Alfred Hitchcock's theme about how a seemingly innocent man can be sucked into a disturbing vortex of forces that lie just below the surface of normal life."
-Kirkus

 

 

To learn more, visit George Harrar's website, and follow him on Facebook and Twitter

George Harrar is available to speak to your book club by Skype or phone.  Contact George to arrange a discussion.





SecondBlock

EmersonT

The Afterlife of Emerson Tang
by Paula Champa
Fiction / 336 pages / Hardcover
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt /
March, 2013
 
 
Dear Reader:

 

In my novel The Afterlife of Emerson Tang,
four strangers find themselves racing over land and sea and into a Zeppelin airship in search of the engine of a treasured antique car. In the process, each one of these unlikely adventurers is also searching for a way to come to terms with haunting personal memories and desires.

As I was writing the book, I was thinking about the days when motor cars were new and exotic machines, tempting EmersonAuthorpeople off on thrilling  adventures. I wanted to capture the romance of that era, and also reflect how grief and nostalgia for earlier times can prevent forward motion. The book's central mystery isn't only about a car, but about the heartaches and hopes for the future that have traveled with it. I hope you enjoy coming along for the ride.

Paula Champa
Narragansett, Rhode Island


PAULA CHAMPA IS GIVING AWAY 5 COPIES OF THE AFTERLIFE OF EMERSON TANG.  ENTER TO WIN A COPY.

   

About The Afterlife of Emerson Tang:

A beloved car becomes a piece of us -- a way back into our histories or forward into our destinies.

For Emerson Tang, the ailing son of a prominent New England family, that car is a 1954 Beacon. A collector of art and experience, Emerson keeps his prized car safely stored away. But when his archivist and caretaker is approached by a secretive French painter determined to buy it at any cost, they discover that the car has been compromised, and that its importance reaches far beyond Emerson's own history.

Soon they run into another who shares their obsession: the heir to the ruined Beacon Motor Company, who is determined to restore his grandfather's legacy. In a race against one another and against time to reunite the car's body and engine, every new clue takes these unlikely adventurers, each grieving a deep loss, closer to finding the missing pieces of their own lives. 

 

Reviews of The Afterlife of Emerson Tang: 
 
"In Champa's vividly detailed debut, watchful narrator Beth Corvid attempts to parse everyone's lives into manageable pieces as she weaves the tale of mystery and connection. [An] intellectual yet deeply human examination of what it means to live as well as to die."
-Booklist

"Money can't buy happiness, but can it buy aesthetic satisfaction, or restore a shattered past?... Suspense arises from the question of whether Beth, whose attachment to Emerson has been central to her adult life, can create a future for herself after his death. While Emerson and H�l�ne's dramatic, slowly revealed motivations for possessing the car make for compelling conflict, it's Beth's unspoken, rigorous devotion that elevates Champa's story."
-Publisher's Weekly

To learn more, visit Paula Champa's website. You can also follow Houghton Mifflin Harcourt books on Facebook and Twitter

 

Paula Champa is available to speak to your book club by phone or Skype. Contact her through her website to arrange a discussion. 



 
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