WILMINGTON — Local writer F. D. Reeve will read from his new novella, Nathaniel Purple, at Bartleby's Books, 17 West Main St., on Saturday, Feb. 25 at 4:30 p.m.
This is Reeve's first novella, but his 31st book. Publisher Voyage Books describes the story as “more than the sum of its parts,” and calls it Reeve's “love poem to the state of Vermont,” and “a rich, vivid canvas for his intimate portrayal of village life in all its passionate, pastoral, and pungent forms.”
Reeve draws readers into this world through the sharp eyes of Nathaniel Purple, who, as the town's librarian, is the link to the world of books and rational thinking. He is also an everyman, a native Vermonter, able to embrace the town's practical justice. And he has a few secrets of his own.
Nathaniel Purple celebrates the strength and timelessness of the natural world above the daily struggle and quotidian quarrels of everyday existence. People live out their destinies while the seasons turn.
Reeve first visited Vermont when John Atherton and Norman Rockwell were painting. Forty years ago, he bought his first house in the state, and now lives in an old farmhouse in Wilmington with his wife, the novelist Laura Stevenson.
His writing has earned an award in literature from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the Golden Rose from the New England Poetry Club, and a D. Lit from New England College.
For more information, visit the book's website.