After a long Covid hiatus, The Friends of Door County Libraries is resuming its successful Book & Author series. In partnership with Write On, Door County, the Friends will host prize-winning author Liam Callanan on Thursday, June 8 at 7 p.m. at the Kress Pavilion in Egg Harbor.
Callanan’s newest book “When In Rome” traces the journey of an American real estate agent whose midlife crisis leads her to Rome and an effort to save a struggling convent. Kirkus Reviews, a bible of the publishing industry, called it “A quiet and ultimately joyous depiction of self-discovery against a vibrant Roman setting.” Book guru Daniel Goldin, owner of Boswell Books in Milwaukee, says the author “…writes about the joys of faith and vocation in an accessible way.”While Oprah Daily, Oprah Winfrey’s online site, named the book a Spring Reading Pick, rating Callanan’s Rome, “a sensory pleasure.”
Callanan’s last book, “Paris By the Book” was a national best-seller, winning the 2019 Edna Ferber Prize, with multiple foreign translations. “The Cloud Atlas” his 2004 debut novel, (not to be confused with a similarly titled book published that year), was a finalist for an Edgar Award, the mystery world’s highest accolade. Callanan followed up “The Cloud Atlas” with “All Saints”, which critic and author Christopher Buckley called “A stunning piece of writing by a genuinely precocious talent – haunting and smooth and wise.”
Callanan’s own assesment of “When in Rome” and his earlier novels: “I like looking at what time does to and for a character…In some ways all my books are coming-of-age stories, even though my characters most often ‘come of age’ quite late. Some people don’t realize the gifs they have…until later in life.”
All of the novels mentioned here are available through https://infosoup.info/
When not penning best-selling novels, Callanan serves in the English department of the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and where he previously was chair and coordinator of its Ph.D. Program in creative writing. He also has written for the New York Times Book Review, Washington Post Magazine, Forbes FYI and has been a contributor to National Public Radio. He was the 2017 recipient of The George W. Hunt SJ Prize in Journalism, Arts and Letters.
During the Friends event on June 8, Callanan will read from “When in Rome,’ as well as discuss his past books and writing processes -(including the chore of researching locales in Paris and Rome) – and answer audience questions. Copies of his books will be available for sale/signing.
(Friends of Door County Libraries Book & Author event, 7 pm, Kress Pavilion, 7845 Church St., Egg Harbor. Free and open to the public)
