MAIN STREET BOOKS

Main Street Books continues its Literary Luncheon series with a visit from author Sue Halpern on Tuesday, October 16. This month’s luncheon will be hosted at The Pickled Peach from 11:30 a.m. until 1 p.m.

Sue Halpern is a Guggenheim Fellow and Rhodes Scholar with a doctorate from Oxford, the author of a book that was made into an Emmy-nominated film, as well as six others that weren’t, a scholar-in-residence at Middlebury College, and a major supporter of the ice cream industry.

Published earlier this year, Halpern’s latest novel, Summer Hours at the Robbers Library, is a wry, observant look at contemporary life and its refugees, and at families – the kind you come from and the kind you create.

For head librarian Kit, the public library in Riverton, New Hampshire, offers what she craves most: peace. Here, no one expects Kit to talk about the calamitous events that catapulted her out of what she thought was a settled, suburban life. She can simply submerge herself in her beloved books and try to forget her problems. But that changes when fifteen-year-old, home-schooled Sunny gets arrested for shoplifting a dictionary and is sentenced to perform community service at the library for the summer. Bright, curious, and eager to connect with someone other than her off-the-grid hippie parents, Sunny coaxes Kit out of her self-imposed isolation. They’re joined by Rusty, a Wall Street high-flyer suddenly crashed to earth.

In this little library that has become the heart of this small town, Kit, Sunny, and Rusty are drawn to each other, and to a cast of other offbeat regulars. As they come to terms with how their lives have unraveled, they also discover how they might knit them together again and finally reclaim their stories.

Readers are invited to converse with Halpern about Summer Hours at the Robbers Library, over food and drink by purchasing their tickets from Main Street Books’ website or in the store by October 12. Tickets, which cost $45, include admission to the luncheon, a meal, and a copy of Summer Hours at the Robbers Library.

For more information, please contact Eleanor Merrell, 704-892-6841, [email protected]