Thursday July 24
7:00 Blue Hill Public Library

co-sponsored by Blue Hill Public Library

Jessica Berger Gross in conversation with Neil Gross

 

When a tight-knit family moves from Brooklyn to Maine, their lives are upended by an event that will alter their new community forever in this bighearted, sparkling debut for fans of Now Is Not the Time to Panic, Pineapple Street, and Schitt’s Creek

Hazel Blum, please report to the principal’s office. Hazel Blum.

When Hazel Blum’s father gets a tenured job at a prestigious college, she and her family relocate from the hustle and bustle of Brooklyn to a middle-of-nowhere college town in Maine. With her mother, Claire, a clothing designer, and her father, Gus, an American Studies professor, Hazel and her eleven-year-old brother, Wolf, spend the summer at the town pool, where they acclimate to their new lives and connect with the town’s sprawling community. That is, until a dramatic fallout on the very first day of her senior year tips the fickle balance of idyllic Riverburg and impacts everyone in her family.

Tracking through the perspectives of each member of the Blum family, this relatable fish-out-of-water story handles big issues with great empathy and humor, capturing the love that unites one unforgettable family and the essence of life in small-town Maine. Emotionally deft, authentic, and compulsively readable, Hazel Says No is a debut novel not to be missed.

 

 

Jessica Berger Gross is the author of the memoir Estranged: Leaving Family and Finding Home. Her essays have appeared in The New York Times Magazine, The Cut, Longreads, and many other publications. She lived in Brooklyn for many years and currently lives in Maine with her husband and teenage son. Hazel Says No is her first novel.

 

 

Neil Gross (Jessica’s husband) is the Charles A. Dana Professor of Sociology at Colby College. His last book was Walk the Walk: How Three Police Chiefs Defied the Odds and Changed Cop Culture (Metropolitan/Holt). He is a frequent contributor to the New York Times and is currently working on a book for Avid Reader Press on politics and the undergraduate experience.