Margot Livesey at Harvard Book Store

presenting

The Road from Belhaven: A Novel

in conversation with ALLEGRA GOODMAN

Date

Feb
6
Tuesday
February 6, 2024
7:00 PM ET

Location

Harvard Book Store
1256 Massachusetts Ave., Cambridge, MA 02138

Tickets

This event is free; no tickets are required.

Harvard Book Store welcomes MARGOT LIVESEY—New York Times best-selling author of The Flight of Gemma Hardy—for a discussion of her new novel The Road from Belhaven. She will be joined in conversation by ALLEGRA GOODMAN—author of Sam.

About The Road from Belhaven

Growing up in the care of her grandparents on Belhaven Farm, Lizzie Craig discovers as a small child that she can see into the future. But her gift is selective—she doesn’t, for instance, see that she has an older sister who will come to join the family. As her “pictures” foretell various incidents and accidents, she begins to realize a painful truth: she may glimpse the future, but she can seldom change it.

Nor can Lizzie change the feelings that come when a young man named Louis, visiting Belhaven for the harvest, begins to court her. Why have the adults around her not revealed that the touch of a hand can change everything? After following Louis to Glasgow, though, she learns the limits of his devotion. Faced with a seemingly impossible choice, she makes a terrible mistake. But her second sight may allow her a second chance.

Praise for The Road from Belhaven

“Margot Livesey is an incandescent writer, generous and graceful, always imbuing her characters with astonishing humanity and grace. I love all of Livesey’s books, but The Road From Belhaven has become my new favorite; I felt so deeply for Lizzie that I worried about her fate with the same love and indignation and hope I would have for a flesh-and-blood friend of my youth. This book is a cold, clear, perfect lake.” —Lauren Groff, New York Times best-selling author of The Vaster Wilds

“This novel casts a spell. The writing here reminds me of Claire Keegan's Foster and Alice Munro at her unsentimental best. Rich with tangible detail, The Road from Belhaven is magical as well, not least in the way it stops time for the reader. I inhaled it in one day.” —Allegra Goodman, New York Times best-selling author of Sam

“Margot Livesey is a treasure: a writer who understands the magic and mysteries of the human soul, and brings that wisdom to novels that are both riveting and lush. The Road from Belhaven is a smart, profound, and beautiful book that draws you in and holds you tight.” —Chris Bohjalian, New York Times best-selling author of The Flight Attendant and Hour of the Witch

Masking Policy

Masks are encouraged but not required for this event.

Allegra Goodman
Allegra Goodman

Allegra Goodman

Allegra Goodman’s novels include Sam (a Read With Jenna Book Club selection), The Chalk Artist (winner of the Massachusetts Book Award), Intuition, The Cookbook Collector, Paradise Park, and Kaaterskill Falls (a National Book Award finalist). Her fiction has appeared in The New Yorker and has been anthologized in The O. Henry Awards and Best American Short Stories.  Raised in Honolulu, Goodman studied English and philosophy at Harvard and received a PhD in English literature from Stanford. She is the recipient of a Whiting Writer’s Award, the Salon Award for Fiction, and a fellowship from the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced study.  Her new novel Isola will be published in February 2025.

Margot Livesey
Margot Livesey

Margot Livesey

Margot Livesey was born and grew up on the edge of the Scottish Highlands. She has taught in numerous writing programs including Emerson College, Boston University, Bowdoin College, and the Warren Wilson low residency MFA program. She is the author of a collection of stories and eight novels, including Eva Moves the Furniture, The Flight of Gemma Hardy, and most recently Mercury. She is the recipient of awards from the NEA, the Guggenheim Foundation, and the Radcliffe Institute. She lives in Cambridge, MA and is on the faculty of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop. The Hidden Machinery: Essays on Writing was published in July 2017.

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1256 Massachusetts Ave., Cambridge, MA 02138

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