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The author discusses her book "This Strange Eventful History" at this annual gathering of book lovers featuring refreshments, door prizes and more. Registration requested; space is limited.
A popular library tradition since 2016, the annual Summer Reading Soirée features sparkling beverages, sorbet and other sweets as well as door prizes and giveaways. Attendees will mix and mingle with library staff and other area book lovers, share what they have been reading and discover titles they may want to read this summer.
This year's soirée is also a chance to stroll around the grounds of Morven Museum and Garden.
Registration for this free event is requested as space is limited to 125 participants.
About the book: Over seven decades, from 1940 to 2010, the pieds-noirs Cassars live in an itinerant state—separated in the chaos of World War II, running from a complicated colonial homeland, and, after Algerian independence, without a homeland at all. "This Strange Eventful History," told with historical sweep, is above all a family story: of patriarch Gaston and his wife Lucienne, whose myth of perfect love sustains them and stifles their children; of François and Denise, devoted siblings connected by their family’s strangeness; of François’s union with Barbara, a woman so culturally different they can barely comprehend one another; of Chloe, the result of that union, who believes that telling these buried stories will bring them all peace.
Inspired in part by long-ago stories from her own family’s history, this book is a “a tour de force…one of those rare novels that a reader doesn’t merely read but lives through with the characters” (Yiyun Li).
About the author: Claire Messud is the author of six works of fiction. A recipient of Guggenheim and Radcliffe Fellowships and the Strauss Living Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, she teaches at Harvard University and lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
About the moderator: Amy Jo Burns is the author of the memoir "Cinderland" and the novel "Shiner," which was a Barnes & Noble Discover Pick and an NPR Best Book of the year. Her latest novel, "Mercury," is a Barnes & Noble Book Club Pick, a Book of the Month Pick, a People Magazine Book of the Week, and an Editor’s Choice selection inThe New York Times. Burns' next novel, "Wait for Me," will be released March 3, 2026.
Presented in partnership with Morven Museum & Garden and Labyrinth Books.
AGE GROUP: | Adults |
EVENT TYPE: | Summer Reading | Author Talks | *Registration Requested |
