Readers, grab your popcorn. An epic summer reading “variety show,” featuring six best-selling novelists, is headed to a screen near you.
Christina Baker Kline — author of eight novels, including Orphan Train and A Piece of the World — will celebrate the paperback launch of The Exiles by gathering some best-selling buddies for a virtual mega-event. Big-name participants include John Searles, Kristin Hannah, Paula McLain, Elin Hilderbrand, and Chris Bohjalian. The Exiles is already optioned for film. Set in the 1840s, the sweeping drama follows three women — two English convicts, and an orphaned Aboriginal girl — in the early English settlement days of Australia.
Wednesday’s event will be hosted by more than 40 indie bookstores around the United States, including East Sandwich’s Titcomb’s Bookshop and Wellesley Books. Each business will handle the event in its own way, said Kline, winner of the New England Prize for Fiction and the Maine Literary Award. At Titcomb’s, for example, tickets are just $5 or free with purchase of The Exiles. Register here.
