The Next Chapter Book Group invites you to join our monthly book discussion on the first Wednesday of the month at 2pm. We will be meeting at the Senior Community Center. This meeting will be held in the Boardroom. Registration is not required, and masks are optional.

This month's title is The Paper Palace by Miranda Cowley Heller.

“It is a perfect August morning, and Elle, a fifty-year-old happily married mother of three, awakens at “The Paper Palace”—the family summer place which she has visited every summer of her life. But this morning is different: last night Elle and her oldest friend Jonas crept out the back door into the darkness and had sex with each other for the first time, all while their spouses chatted away inside. Now, over the next twenty-four hours, Elle will have to decide between the life she has made with her genuinely beloved husband, Peter, and the life she always imagined she would have had with her childhood love, Jonas, if a tragic event hadn’t forever changed the course of their lives. As Heller colors in the experiences that have led Elle to this day, we arrive at her ultimate decision with all its complexity. Tender yet devastating, The Paper Palace considers the tensions between desire and dignity, the legacies of abuse, and the crimes and misdemeanors of families.”

Books are available for request via the library catalog. Click HERE to put a copy on hold. Email srubinstein@newburyportpl.org or call 978-465-4428 x242 if you have any questions, or to have a librarian put the book on hold for you.