The author reads from her newly released novel "Lake Effect," and is joined by Alice Elliot Dark for a conversation about the book.
About the Book (from the publisher):
From the New York Times bestselling author of "The Nest" and "Good Company" comes a wry and tender portrait of two families forever changed by one lovestruck decision that reverberates for decades.
It’s 1977 and an air of restlessness has settled on the residents of Cambridge Road in Rochester, New York, a place long fueled by the booming fortunes of Kodak and Xerox and, for some, the mores of the Catholic church. When Nina Larkin is given a copy of The Joy of Sex by her newly divorced friend, she can no longer dismiss the nearly nonexistent intimacy of her marriage. Just as her oldest child, Clara, is falling in love for the first time, Nina finds herself longing for the forbidden: a midlife awakening. An intoxicating fling with a prominent neighbor brings Nina a freedom she never thought possible—but also risks the reputations of both families and unravels Clara’s world, just as she stands on the threshold of adulthood.
Years later, Clara, now a successful food stylist in New York City, has never been able to move past the long-ago scandal. Drawn back home by the pull of a family wedding and wrestling with her own demons, she makes a pivotal decision that turns her life upside down. Written with Cynthia D’Aprix Sweeney’s signature humor and insight, "Lake Effect" is a wise and probing look at love and desire, mothers and daughters, loss and grief, and what we owe the people we loved first.
About the Author: Cynthia D’Aprix Sweeney is the author of the instant New York Times bestselling novels "The Nest" (named a best book of the year by People, the Washington Post, and NPR) and Good Company (a Read with Jenna selection). She has been a guest on Today, Late Night with Seth Meyers and NPR’s All Things Considered. Her work has been translated into more than twenty-eight languages, and The Nest is in development as a limited series with AMC Studios. Sweeney holds an MFA from the Bennington Writing Seminars. She and her husband live in New York City.
About the Moderator: Alice Elliott Dark is the author of the novels "Fellowship Point" and "Think of England," and two collections of short stories, "In The Gloaming" and "Naked to the Waist." "In the Gloaming," a story, was chosen by John Updike for inclusion in "The Best American Short Stories of The Century" and was made into films by HBO and Trinity Playhouse. She is a Professor in the English department and the Director of the MFA in Creative Writing program at Rutgers-Newark. A new novel, "Wherever You Are," is forthcoming in 2027.
