“Where Do Novels Come From?” with Author Isabel Tutaine

The Camden Public Library welcomes author Isabel Tutaine for an engaging presentation about novel writing and publishing and what one discovers about oneself during the process. She will also talk about and read from her recently released novel, Song of the Wooden Sparrow. This program is in person and will take place on Tuesday, November 19 at 6:30 p.m. in the Picker Room. Refreshments will be provided and books will be for sale following the event.

Isabel Tutaine writes about ordinary people who summon the courage to take control of their lives. She is Cuban by birth, American by citizenship, Cuban-New Englander by culture. She lives in midcoast Maine where she listens what the ocean has to say, then runs home to write it down.

About Song of the Wooden Sparrow

1894: Devastated by the deaths of her husband and son during an epidemic in Ghana, Dr. Leah Maays returns home to Edith’s Bay, Maine. Hoping to continue her medical career, she discovers the community is hostile to female doctors.

Enter Duncan Shay. After years of being ostracized for murdering a man while robbing a bank, he’s developed a persona that can freeze a glass of water.

Unaware Duncan is shunned, Leah tends to a gouge on his hand as if he’s just another regular fellow, making Duncan realize the walls he’s built to keep others out are too weak to contain his yearnings to belong.

Though drawn to him, Leah resists Duncan’s friendship because she can’t establish a practice if she, too, is ostracized. To have Leah in his life, Duncan must convince everyone, including himself, that he’s more than the worst thing he’s ever done in his life.

“A love story heightened by its tense, slow pace building to a deep crescendo with beautiful and lyrical language.” Kristin Frangoulis, Arts by the Bay, Good Morning Belfast

“A truly engaging story, heartfelt and fresh, with generous servings of wit.” Ellen Sander, author and Belfast poet laureate