Description

Caitlin Shetterly and Laura Zigman visit Gibson's Bookstore to present their new novels, The Gulf of Lions and The Author Weekend. Come listen to these authors chat about strong midlife female protagonists and what a trip or retreat can draw someone towards…for better or worse. About the Books From the acclaimed author of Pete and Alice in Maine, comes a standalone and evocative sequel about a mother who, recovering from the trauma of breast cancer and a mastectomy, takes a once-in-a-lifetime trip across France with her two daughters, determined to fully live. There, she finds herself newly awakened by beauty and desire but when the trip takes a turn for the worst, she must decide between a life of pleasure or the deep tethering of family. Reconciling with her husband after a betrayal and recovering from a yearlong battle with breast cancer, Alice longs for an escape from the trials of everyday life. When the opportunity arises for a once-in-a-lifetime camping trip across France, she packs up her daughters, hoping it’s the new start she so desperately needs. Alice, teenage Sophie, and young Iris begin their odyssey in the French Alps, entering a foreign world they did not know existed: beautiful people, luscious food, and sensual temptations. It’s a freeing experience—exploring the countryside, sleeping beneath the stars, reveling in the sights and scents of nature. For the first time since her diagnosis, Alice starts to feel alive, less afraid of dying, and less angry about her husband's affair. But as the family continues south, traveling through Provence, where they camp on the Gulf of Lions, an area of the Mediterranean known for wild, roaring winds and purple fields of lavender, they start to unravel the yarn that binds them together. By the time they head to the charred Pyrenees, and then back across France to stay in a castle that sits on the confluence of two rivers, Alice worries that the trip might have been a disastrous and reckless mistake. A beautiful meditation on womanhood, personhood, exploration, survival and sexual awakenings, The Gulf of Lions is a breathtaking and emotionally resonant story that plumbs the eternal question: What, in the end, will keep a family from falling apart? The Devil Wears Prada meets White Lotus in a story of colliding egos and shocking betrayal, as intoxicatingly ice-cold as the pink Prosecco that flows all weekend. Everything needs to be just right for bestselling mystery writer Faye Wader's first ever fan weekend. Her sales might be slipping--only a little!--but her readers still love her enough to pony up for three days and two nights on Great Misery Island. The retreat is precisely planned, from the small batch artisanal donuts to the perimenopausal Mermaid Meditation, by Faye and her beleaguered assistant Jade--an aspiring author who can't seem to finish her own novel. Faye's long-time agent and editor will be there, as well as Faye's number one fan, Peggy Mercer, who has been first in line at every one of Faye's events. When news comes that the weekend will be crashed by glamorous, charismatic, rival novelist Abby Schuss, Faye thinks things can't get worse ... until one of the attendees is found dead in her room, setting off an unexpectedly murderous chain of events that make pre-pub anxiety seem like a day at the beach. How far is Faye willing to go to get exactly what she wants from her author weekend? The Author Weekend is a thrilling and hilarious dive into the dark heart of envy, and a glorious exploration of a woman of a certain age desperate to survive the dog-eat-dog world of publishing and control her own narrative. About the Authors Caitlin Shetterly is the author of Modified, Made for You and Me, and Pete and Alice in Maine. She the editor of the bestselling Fault Lines: Stories of Divorce. She won the Maine Literary Award for Modified in 2017. Her work has been featured in the New York Times, the New York Times Magazine, Orion, Elle, Self, the Boston Globe, Medium, LitHub, Romper, and on Oprah.com, as well as on This American Life, Hidden Brain, Studio 360, Weekend Edition and various other public radio shows. She an editor-at-large for Frenchly, a French arts and culture online news magazine. A Maine native, she graduated with honors from Brown University and now lives with her two sons and husband in her home state. Caitlin is passionately committed to helping preserve, in every way she can, the peace of wild things. Laura Zigman is the author of Small World (a New York Times Group Text pick and Editor's Choice), Separation Anxiety, Animal Husbandry (which was made into the movie 'Someone Like You,' starring Hugh Jackman and Ashley Judd), Dating Big Bird, Her, and Piece of Work. She has collaborated on several works of non-fiction--including Eddie Izzard's New York Times bestseller, Believe Me--and has been a contributor to the New York Times and other publications. She lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts.