HARDWICK, Local author Brett Stanciu will launch her new novel, “Call It Madness,” on Tuesday, June 30 at 7 p.m. in the Parker Ladd Community Room at the Jeudevine Memorial Library. The event is co-hosted by the Galaxy Bookshop and will include a reading and discussion.
Stanciu described the book as a return to fiction after her nonfiction work “Unstitched,” which explored addiction in the region. “The second book that I wrote was ‘Unstitched,’ and that was a nonfiction book about addiction in this area, and that was a really, really hard book to write. And so I wanted to return to fiction, to my love of fiction,” she said. “While addiction does come up in this novel, it’s not really at the heart of this novel, this novel is really a story about seeking out family secrets.”
The novel follows protagonist Avah Lavoie, a millennial who inherits a dilapidated Vermont house after her estranged mother calls with news of her great-grandfather’s death. According to Stanciu, the story delves into “buried family secrets: a sawmill accident, a mother who overdosed, a missing father.” She called the book “my fullest range as a writer and a woman, digging at the thorniness of life while also reveling in the world’s serendipitous beauty.”
Stanciu said she plans to read a short excerpt and then spend time with attendees: “We’re gonna eat cake and enjoy ourselves.” She noted the story is “a very wintry book” and “a very Vermont book” that explores themes of family and place. Her previous works include “Hidden View” and “Unstitched.”
Originally reported by Hardwick Gazette.
Photo: Igor Shalyminov via Unsplash. Photo is illustrative and not from the scene.
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