We are thrilled to welcome Julia Fine to the shop in celebration of the paperback release of her debut novel What Should Be Wild! Julia will appear in conversation with Layne Fargo. A Q&A and book signing will follow the discussion.
About the book:
"In this darkly funny, striking debut, a highly unusual young woman must venture into the woods at the edge of her home to remove a curse that has plagued the women in her family for millennia—an utterly original novel with all the mesmerizing power of The Tiger’s Wife, The Snow Child, and Swamplandia!
Cursed. Maisie Cothay has never known the feel of human flesh: born with the power to kill or resurrect at her slightest touch, she has spent her childhood sequestered in her family’s manor at the edge of a mysterious forest. Maisie’s father, an anthropologist who sees her as more experiment than daughter, has warned Maisie not to venture into the wood. Locals talk of men disappearing within, emerging with addled minds and strange stories. What he does not tell Maisie is that for over a millennium her female ancestors have also vanished into the wood, never to emerge—for she is descended from a long line of cursed women.
But one day Maisie’s father disappears, and Maisie must venture beyond the walls of her carefully constructed life to find him. Away from her home and the wood for the very first time, she encounters a strange world filled with wonder and deception. Yet the farther she strays, the more the wood calls her home. For only there can Maisie finally reckon with her power and come to understand the wildest parts of herself." - Harper Collins
About the author:
Julia Fine earnd her MFA at Columbia College Chicago, and has taught writing at Columbia College, DePaul University, and online with Catapult. Her debut novel, What Should Be Wild, has been nominated for a Bram Stoker Award and shortlisted for the Chicago Review of Books Award for Fiction. Julia lives in Logan Square with her husband and son.
About Layne Fargo:
Layne Fargo is a thriller author and the cocreator of the podcast Unlikeable Female Characters. Her debut novel Temper will be published by Scout Press this July. Layne lives in Chicago with her partner and their pets.
