Please join the Shelter Island Public Library in warmly welcoming back bestselling author Barbara Josselsohn for an FND talk about her most recent work, “Secrets of the Italian Island.”
Part of the library’s Friday Night Dialogues series, the discussion takes place on July 14, at 7 PM in the library’s lower level Community Room. Follow this link to register.
Josselsohn spent last summer on the North Fork writing the novel. It’s her first work of historical fiction, and the start of a planned World War II series. The settings are present-day Long Island and Italy during World War II’s darkest days.
Shelter Island plays an important role. “I am a Long Island girl at heart,” said Josselsohn, a Nassau County native who now lives in Westchester.
“Shelter Island has held a special allure since an excursion my senior class made there after graduation from Syosset High School.”
The new novel’s heroines — a grandmother and granddaughter — venture across every year by ferry to bike and hike in nature. On one occasion, the key to unlocking a grave family secret is inadvertently revealed.
About Barbara Josselsohn
An avid fan of historical fiction, Josselsohn said she finds the process of conjuring a world that accurately conveys a place in a time past to be very exciting.
“Virtually every sentence requires tracking down details,” she said. “For example, determining the kind of pen a character might have used to write a letter in 1943 feels relevant.”
Moving from research to imagining and back again, she unfurls a deeply human story of grief, longing, and fateful mistakes, all set in the context of consequential historic events.
Josselsohn is a teacher of creative writing at the Writing Institute at Sarah Lawrence College and Westport Writers Workshop. Her previous books are “The Lilac House,” “The Cranberry Inn,” “The Lily Garden,” “The Bluebell Girls,” and “The Last Dreamer.”
She is working on the second book in the WWII series, “The Lost Gift to the Italian Island.” It’s due out in December 2023.
“I really look forward to returning to the wonderful Shelter Island Library and reconnecting with what is a very special community of readers,” Josselsohn said.
FND details
Friday Night Dialogues, like all library programs, is free to the public. SIPL gratefully accepts donations.
You can borrow “Secrets of the Italian Island” from the library. Autographed copies will be available for purchase after the program by cash, check, or Venmo.
For further information or assistance, contact Jessica Montgomery at jmontgomery@silibrary.org or 631-749-0042.
Next Up: Celebrate the life and work of beloved folk musician, environmentalist, and social activist Pete Seeger, on Friday, July 21, at 7 PM
Bonnie Bermann Stockwell is a trustee of the Shelter Island Public Library
