Bestselling author Jane Hamilton, whose new novel, The Excellent Lombards (to be released April 19), has been chosen as Barrett Bookstore’s Spring Book Club selection, will be at the store at 7 p.m., Thursday, April 21.

Jane Hamilton

Novelist Jane Hamilton, author of “The Excellent Lombards” will be at Barrett Bookstore at 7 p.m., Thursday, April 21. Reserve a seat. (contributed photo by Leslie Brown)

“Each season we select a book that we have loved and invite the author to come and speak about their work,” said Sheila Daley, owner of Barrett Bookstore, at 314 Heights Road, in the Noroton Heights Shopping Center.

The event will be formatted as an ‘in conversation’ with Carol Anshaw, another author who visited Barrett Bookstore when her novel, Carry the One, was published in 2012.

“Everyone is welcome,” Daley said.  These evenings have become very special — a chance to hear some wonderful writers talk about their craft. I am a huge fan of Jane Hamilton and we are so excited that she is coming.”

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— This is an announcement from Barrett Bookstore.

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Two of Jane Hamilton’s earlier novels, The Book of Ruth and Map of the World were chosen by Oprah Winfrey for her immensely popular Book Club and became New York Times bestsellers.

Her third novel, The Short History of a Prince was chosen by Publishers Weekly as the best book of 1998 and was also shortlisted for the 1999 Orange Prize.

The Excellent Lombards

Hamilton’s new novel, The Excellent Lombards, is a coming of age story and, like much of her fiction, is set in rural Wisconsin.

The Excellent Lombards 4-10-16In the novel, Mary Francis “Frankie” Lombard is deeply in love with her family’s sprawling apple orchard and the tangled web of family members who inhabit it.

Content to spend her days planning capers with her brother William, one-upping her bratty cousin Amanda, and expertly tending the orchard, Frankie desires nothing more than for the rhythm of life to continue undisturbed.

But change is inevitable, and threats of urbanization, disinheritance, and college applications shake the foundation of Frankie’s roots. As Frankie is forced to shed her childhood fantasies and face the possibility of losing the idyllic future she had envisioned for her family, she must decide whether loving something means clinging tightly or letting go.

Today, Hamilton resides at an orchard very much like the one in The Excellent Lombards.

It is the place where she raised a family and wrote all of the novels she is known for today. She reports that writing continues to be her “obsession” and that she writes every day.

There is no charge for this event. Please call 203-655-2712 to reserve seat or sign up at the store.

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