in conversation with Peter Behrens 

Tuesday July 1
7:00 at Blue Hill Public Library

5 Parker Point Road
Blue Hill, Maine 04614

co-sponsored by Blue Hill Public Library

 

Just about everything has gone wrong for Gwen Gilmore over the past year. She’s lost her mother, her teaching job, and been dumped by her–albeit not that great–long-term boyfriend. Adrift and out of options, she packs her life into her barely functioning car and makes the lonely drive north, to the only place she can think of going: her family’s aging cottage on the Maine coast, Periwinkle, which she’s recently inherited.

The cottage and Port Anna, the foggy Maine town of Gwen’s childhood, are unchanged in many ways. For Gwen, they are full of the ghosts of her past–boyfriends, forgotten creative dreams, and painful memories of a sister lost too young. Periwinkle is also home to some more literal ghosts: The Misses, friendly spirits who have long watched over the cottage, but who now seem strangely unsettled, slamming doors and moving furniture in the night. And behind its charming façade, Port Anna has not escaped the realities of modern life. Family homes are being razed to make space for garish condos, the cottage, coveted by a relentless local realtor, is about to be condemned, and the unsolved disappearance of a teenage girl has set the town on edge. On the face of it, it’s an odd place to try to make a new start.

But there are glimmers of hope everywhere, if only Gwen can open herself up to possibility. Sparks fly with Leandro, an Argentinian artist, as aloof and witty as he is wildly attractive. Old friends and former flames come out of the woodwork, bringing with them new opportunities and chances to laugh again. Even in the face of potential happiness, though, it seems some secrets refuse to stay buried. As the summer crowds return to the city and the locals hunker down for another harsh Maine winter, Gwen will be forced to make choices that will change her life forever.

 

Libby Buck earned a Ph.D. in art history from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She and her husband share three daughters, an English cocker spaniel, and an abiding love for the great state of Maine. Port Anna is Libby’s first novel.

 

Peter Behren‘s first novel The Law of Dreams won the Governor-General’s Award, Canada’s most prestigious book prize, and has been published in nine languages. The New York Times Book Review called his second novel, The O’Briens, “a major achievement.” Carry Me, his third novel, will be published in February 2016. He is the author of two collections of short stories, Night Driving and Travelling Light. His stories and essays have appeared in The Atlantic, The New York Times, and many anthologies. A native of Montreal, he held a Wallace Stegner Fellowship in Creative Writing at Stanford University and is currently a fellow at Harvard University’s Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study.