BELFAST — Left Bank Books, in downtown Belfast, invites the public to two free upcoming talks and book signings. 

On Tuesday, October 15, at 6 p.m., Cynthia Reeves and Elizabeth Garber will be in conversation to celebrate Reeves’s new novel, The Last Whaler. 

On Thursday, October 17, at 6:30 p.m., Lewis Robinson and Brock Clarke will discuss Robinson’s new novel, The Islanders. 

The Last Whaler is a meticulously researched novel about a couple’s sojourn at an Arctic whaling station in the late 1930s. A beluga whaler and his wife, a botanist who specializes in Arctic flora, are stranded at a remote whaling station when they fail to rendezvous with the ship meant to carry them home to Norway. Beyond enduring the Arctic winter’s twenty-four-hour night, the couple must cope with the dangers of polar bears, violent storms, bitter cold, and an unexpected pregnancy.

Cynthia Reeves has had a lifelong interest in the Arctic and has traveled there several times. Her work has appeared in numerous literary journals, and she’s been awarded residencies at Hawthornden Castle and the Vermont Studio Center.

Joining Reeves in conversation will be Elizabeth Garber, author of several books including, most recently, her second memoir, Sailing at the Edge of Disaster: A Memoir of a Young Woman’s Daring Year.

On Thursday, October 17 at 6:30 p.m., Maine author Lewis Robinson celebrates the recent release of The Islanders, his novel about a teenager who wrecks a promising athletic career in one impulsive mistake. Reeling, he accepts an invitation to participate in a leadership program on a Maine island that holds murky secrets. The Islanders is a suspenseful reckoning of class conflict in the U.S., with a vivid tale of friendship and family at its heart.

Robinson has been a teaching-writing fellow at the Iowa Writers Workshop, has taught writing at Colby College and Stanford University, and was the writer-in-residence at Phillips Academy, Andover. He is currently on the faculty at the University of Maine at Farmington. His work has been featured on NPR’s Selected Shorts and has appeared in Tin House and The Missouri Review, among others.

Joining Robinson will be Brock Clarke, a novelist, short story writer, and essayist who is currently a professor of English at Bowdoin College.

Reservations are recommended for both events. Call 207-338-9009 or email info@leftbankbookshop.com. 

Left Bank Books is located at 109 Church Street in downtown Belfast, and there’s ample, free parking in front of the shop and in an adjacent city lot.