All are invited to join us for EHS’s Connecticut History Book Club. Offered in collaboration with Essex Library and Ivoryton Library, EHS hosts this quarterly book club to explore the state's past through both fiction and non-fiction works, highlighting key events, figures, and themes that shaped the state or played a larger role in America’s history. We will focus on works that illuminate the bring marginalized stories to the forefront, offering a deeper understanding of Connecticut's diverse history. Join us for insightful discussions that connect the past to the present, revealing the histories that shaped our state.
For our September book we are reading the novel: The Narrows by Ann Petry. Ann Petry was an Old Saybrook native known for her novels, short stories, and children's books. Her debut novel The Street (1946) became the first novel by an African-American woman to sell more than a million copies. Books can be checked out from Ivoryton Library or Essex Library Association, or purchased wherever you get your books. PLEASE NOTE: it is a BIG book, so we encourage you to start it now.
On Wednesday, November 19, please join us at Pratt House (19 West Avenue) for a book discussion lead by EHS Director, Melissa Josefiak. This event is FREE and lite refreshments will be provided. Register below!
Book description from the publisher: “It’s Saturday, past midnight, and thick fog rolls in from the river like smoke. Link Williams is standing on the dock when he hears quick footsteps approaching, and the gasp of a woman too terrified to scream. After chasing off her pursuer, he takes the woman to a nearby bar to calm her nerves, and as they enter, it’s as if the oxygen has left the room: they, and the other patrons, see in the dim light that he’s Black and she’s white.
Link is a brilliant Dartmouth graduate, former athlete and soldier who, because of the lack of opportunities available to him, tends bar; Camilo is a wealthy married woman dissatisfied with and bored of her life of privilege. Thrown together by a chance encounter, both Link and Camilo secretly cross the town’s racial divide, defying the social prejudices of their times.
In this stunning and heartbreaking story, Petry illuminates the harsh realities of race and class through two doomed lovers. This profound, necessary novel stakes Petry’s place as an indelible writer of American literature. ” (harpercollins.com)