Blue Hill Books

Author and seasonal resident Jeffrey Lewis will share from his forthcoming book “Bealport: A Novel of a Town.” The book comes out officially on August 28, but attendees at this event will have the special opportunity to purchase the book before its release date!

Bealport, Maine, is one of the forgotten towns of America, a place that all too often seems to have its best days behind it. And perhaps nothing symbolizes that more than the old shoe factory—“NORUMBEGA Makers of Fine Footwear Since 1903”—that lately has been perpeatually on the brink of failure, and is now up for sale.

But maybe there’s hope? A private equity savant with a fondness for the factory’s shoes buys it—and thus sets in motion a story with profound implications for the town, and for the larger question of how we live today. The factory is a hobby for him, but it represents infinitely more for the residents of Bealport: not only their livelihoods but their self-respect, their connectedness, their sense of self-sufficiency are all bound up in it. Can this high-flying outsider understand that? How will he negotiate the complicated long-term relationships that define the town and its families?

In “Bealport,” Jeffrey Lewis takes us inside the town, revealing its secrets, acknowledging its problems, and honoring its ambitions. Brilliantly deploying a large cast from all walks of life, he reveals small town America in the early twenty-first century through the interwoven secrets and desires of its residents, and through them delivers a striking portrait of America at a moment of national uncertainty.

Jeffrey Lewis was born in New York City and educated at Yale and the Harvard Law School. He lives in Los Angeles and Castine, Maine. In addition to “Bealport,” he is the author of six other novels. Before turning full-time to writing fiction, Lewis won numerous awards , including two Emmys, the Writers Guild Award, the Humanitas Prize, the People’s Choice Award, and the Image Award of the NAACP, as a writer and producer of the landmark American television series Hill Street Blues.