The Brattleboro Literary Festival invites you to join us on Friday, August 14 at 5:00 pm for a virtual summer Literary Cocktail Hour, featuring New York Times best-selling author Caroline Leavitt in conversation with best-selling author Amy Poeppel on her new Musical Chairs, a very funny novel that explores Bridget Stratton's summer —it was not what she planned.
It is a story of motherhood, sisterhood, fixing up a house, music, and ageing. It is also a story of being scared to change and yet still wanting to—and a story of falling in love. The book has been widely praised, described by Kirkus Reviews in a starred review as "A delightful novel that celebrates the messiness and joy to be found in real life." It's a comic take on the changes a summer brings for a cellist, her grown children, her friends and her extended family. Humor comes in the form of an errant herd of sheep, a feisty parrot named Ronaldo, and epically awful wedding-wear.
According to the starred review in Kirkus, Caroline Leavitt's new novel, With or Without You, asks the question "What if Snow White woke up and decided she didn't much like Prince Charming?" It is the story of Stella and Simon who, after almost 20 years together, are starting to run into problems. An up-and-coming rock musician when they first met, Simon has been clinging to dreams of fame and he wants to go on the road, leaving Stella behind. But when she falls into a coma on the eve of his departure, he has to make a choice between stardom and his wife—and when she wakes a different person, with an incredible artistic talent of her own, the two of them must examine what it is that they really want.
To register for this free event, please go to https://bit.ly/LitCocktail4. Registered participants will be able to interact with the authors in a question and answer session. Or you can just watch the event live-streamed on the Brattleboro Literary Festival's Facebook page without registering https://m.facebook.com/brattleborolitfest/
Amy Poeppel is the acclaimed author of three novels Small Admissions, Limelight and a new book, Musical Chairs, published on July 21. Her writing has appeared in The New York Times, The Rumpus, Literary Hub, Working Mother, and The Belladonna.
Caroline Leavitt is the award-winning author of twelve novels, including the New York Times bestsellers Pictures of You and Is This Tomorrow and a new book, With or Without You, published on August 4. She's a book critic for People, the Boston Globe, and the San Francisco Chronicle, and she teaches writing online at Stanford and UCLA.
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