Register 122 Seats Remaining

Meet Author Patti Callahan Henry

in conversation with Paula McLain

Join us when author Patti Callahan Henry visits to discuss her latest book, The Secret Book of Flora Lea.

About the author:

Patti Callahan Henry is the New York Times and USA TODAY bestselling author of several novels, including Surviving Savannah and Becoming Mrs. Lewis. She is the recipient of the Christy Award, the Harper Lee Award for Alabama’s Distinguished Writer of the Year Award, and the Alabama Library Association Book of the Year. She is the cohost and cocreator of the popular weekly online live web show and podcast Friends and Fiction. A full-time author and mother of three, she lives in Alabama and South Carolina with her family.

In The Secret Book of Flora Lea, fourteen-year-old Hazel and five-year-old Flora evacuate their London home for a rural village to escape the horrors of the Second World War. Living with the Aberdeen family in a charming stone cottage, Hazel distracts her young sister with a fairy tale about a magical land, a secret place they can escape to that is all their own: Whisperwood.

But the unthinkable happens when Flora suddenly vanishes after playing near the banks of the River Thames. Shattered, Hazel blames herself for her sister’s disappearance, carrying the guilt into adulthood.

Twenty years later, Hazel is back in London, ready to move on from her job at a cozy rare bookstore for a career at Sotheby’s. With a cherished boyfriend and an upcoming Paris getaway, Hazel’s future seems set. But her tidy life is turned upside down when she unwraps a package containing a picture book called Whisperwood and the River of Stars. Hazel never told a soul about the storybook world she created just for Flora. Could this book hold the secrets to Flora’s disappearance? Could it be a sign that her beloved sister is still alive after all these years? Or is something sinister at play?

Patti Callahan Henry will be in conversation with Paula McLain, the New York Times bestselling author of the novels Love and Ruin, Circling the Sun, The Paris Wife, and A Ticket to Ride, the memoir Like Family: Growing Up in Other People’s Houses, and two collections of poetry. Her most recent novel is When the Stars Go Dark. Her writing has appeared in The New York Times, Good Housekeeping, O: The Oprah Magazine, Town & Country, The Guardian, The Huffington Post, and elsewhere. She lives in Ohio with her family.

Registration for this event is FREE. VIP tickets are also available for purchase.

Each VIP Ticket ($35) includes:

• Admission to a pre-show Meet & Greet with the author (6:00-7:00 PM)
• Light refreshments
• VIP seating at the author talk
• A copy of The Secret Book of Flora Lea
• A donation to the Cuyahoga County Public Library Foundation

Click HERE to purchase VIP tickets.

Additional books will be available for purchase at the event courtesy of Mac's Backs - Books on Coventry.