Author: Terri-Lynne DeFino
Publisher: William Morrow Paperbacks
Date of publication: June 2018
A whimsical, moving novel about a retirement home for
literary legends who spar, conjure up new stories, and almost magically change
the lives of the people around them.
Alfonse Carducci was a literary giant who lived his life to
excess—lovers, alcohol, parties, and literary rivalries. But now he’s come to
the Bar Harbor Home for the Elderly to spend the remainder of his days among
kindred spirits: the publishing industry’s nearly gone but never forgotten
greats. Only now, at the end of his life, does he comprehend the price of
appeasing every desire, and the consequences of forsaking love to pursue
greatness. For Alfonse has an unshakeable case of writer’s block that
distresses him much more than his precarious health.
Set on the water in one of New England’s most beautiful
locales, the Bar Harbor Home was established specifically for elderly writers
needing a place to live out their golden years—or final days—in understated
luxury and surrounded by congenial literary company. A faithful staff of nurses
and orderlies surround the writers, and are drawn into their orbit, as they are
forced to reckon with their own life stories. Among them are Cecibel Bringer, a
young woman who knows first-hand the cost of chasing excess. A terrible
accident destroyed her face and her sister in a split-second decision that
Cecibel can never forgive, though she has tried to forget. Living quietly as an
orderly, refusing to risk again the cost of love, Cecibel never anticipated the
impact of meeting her favorite writer, Alfonse Carducci—or the effect he would
have on her existence. In Cecibel, Alfonse finds a muse who returns him to the
passion he thought he lost. As the words flow from him, weaving a tale taken up
by the other residents of the Pen, Cecibel is reawakened to the idea of love
and forgiveness.
As the edges between story and reality blur, a world within
a world is created. It’s a place where the old are made young, the damaged are
made whole, and anything is possible….
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About Terri-Lynne DeFino
Terri-Lynne DeFino was born and raised in New Jersey, but
escaped to the wilds of Connecticut, where she still lives with her husband and
her cats. She spends most days in her loft, in her woodland cabin along the
river, writing about people she’s never met. Other days, she can be found
slaying monsters with her grandchildren. If you knock on her door, she’ll most
likely be wearing a tiara. She’ll also invite you in and feed you, because you
can take the Italian girl out of Jersey, but you can’t take the Jersey Italian
out of the girl.
Find out more about Terri at her website.
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Thanks for featuring this book for the tour!
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