Join us with the author, Lauren Belfer, on August 3, at 6:30 pm, to discuss her book, Ashton  Hall.

This ticket is for in-person registration only.

Can't make Book Club in person?  Click Here for Virtual Registration.

About the book

“How many lives can you imagine yourself living?”

So Hannah Larson wonders. When a close relative falls ill, Hannah and her young son, Nicky, decide to join him for the summer at Ashton Hall, a historic manor house outside Cambridge, England. Hannah gave up her academic career to raise her beloved child, who is neurodivergent and experiences the world differently from others. She’s grateful to escape her life in New York City, where her marriage has been upended by a devastating betrayal.

Soon after their arrival, ever-curious Nicky discovers the skeletal remains of a woman in a forgotten, walled-off wing of the manor, and Hannah is pulled into an all-consuming quest for answers. Working from clues in centuries-old ledgers and the personal papers of the long-departed family, Hannah begins to re-create the Ashton Hall of the Elizabethan era in all its color and conflict. As the secrets of her own life begin to unravel, and the rewards and complications of being Nicky’s mother come into focus, Hannah realizes that Ashton Hall’s women before she had lived were not so different from her own. She confronts what women throughout history have had to do to control their own destinies and protect their children.

Rich with passion, strength, and ferocity across the ages, Ashton Hall is a novel that reveals the most profound hauntings within ourselves.

About the Author

Lauren Belfer’s most recent novel, AND AFTER THE FIRE, received the inaugural Book Club Award of the 2016 National Jewish Book Awards. Her next novel, ASHTON HALL, will be published on June 7, 2022.

Lauren's debut novel, CITY OF LIGHT, was a New York Times bestseller as well as a New York Times Notable Book. CITY OF LIGHT was also a bestseller in Great Britain and has been translated into six languages. Her second novel, A FIERCE RADIANCE, was named a Washington Post Best Novel, an NPR Best Mystery, and a New York Times Editors’ Choice. In a four-star review, USA Today said that Belfer's third novel, AND AFTER THE FIRE, “swells with life’s great themes — love and death, family and faith — and the insistent, dark music of loss.”

Lauren grew up in Buffalo, New York, and decided to become a writer when she was six. By the time she was in high school, her literary work was receiving rejection letters from all the best publications. After graduating from college, she worked as a file clerk at an art gallery, a paralegal at a law firm, an assistant photo editor at a newspaper, a fact checker at magazines, and as a researcher and associate producer on documentary films. Her first published short story was rejected forty-two times before it found an editor who loved it. Her second published story was rejected only twenty-seven times. She has an M.F.A. from Columbia University and lives in New York City. To learn more about Lauren and her work, visit her website: www.LaurenBelfer.com