Gothictown Author Emily Carpenter at the Conroy Center, April 17
story and photos courtesy of PAT CONROY LITERARY CENTER
The nonprofit Pat Conroy Literary Center will host an evening with novelist Emily Carpenter, author of the newly published novel Gothictown, in conversation with Conroy Center executive director Jonathan Haupt. Free and open to the public, this author event will be held on Thursday, April 17, at 5:00 p.m., at the Conroy Center (601 Bladen St., Beaufort). Books will be available for sale and signing through NeverMore Books. Seating is limited; please call to reserve a seat in advance: 843-379-7025.
ABOUT THE BOOK AND AUTHOR
“A high-energy read that effortlessly reinvents the modern Gothic while delivering all the elements that make the genre so captivating: a haunting atmosphere, a dark legacy, a determined heroine and a whisper of horror. I love the Gothic and I love Gothictown.” —Jayne Ann Krentz, New York Times bestselling author
In an immersive Southern Gothic novel with echoes of Shirley Jackson’s The Lottery and Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn, a restauranteur lured by pandemic-era incentives moves her family to a seemingly idyllic small town in Georgia, only to discover a darkness lurking beneath the Southern hospitality and sun-dappled streets.
The email that lands in Billie Hope’s inbox seems like a gift from the universe. For $100, she can purchase a spacious Victorian home in Juliana, Georgia, a small town eager to boost its economy in the wake of the pandemic. She can leave behind her cramped New York City rental and the painful memories of shuttering her once thriving restaurant and start over with her husband and her daughter. Plus, she’ll get a business grant to open a new restaurant in a charming riverside community laden with opportunity. It seems like a dream come true…or a devil’s bargain.
A few phone calls and one hurried visit later, and Billie, Peter, and six-year-old Meredith are officially part of the Juliana Initiative. The town is everything promised—two hours northwest of Atlanta but a world away from city living, a “gentle jewel” with weather as warm as its people. Between settling into their lavish home and starting her new restaurant, Billie is busy enough to dismiss any troubling signs.
But Billie’s sleep is marred by haunting dreams, and her marriage with Peter is growing increasingly strained. Meanwhile the town elders, all descended from Juliana’s founding families, exert a level of influence that feels less benevolent and more stifling day by day.
There’s something about “Gentle Juliana”—something off-kilter and menacing beneath that famous Southern hospitality. And no matter how much Billie longed for her family to come here, she’s starting to wonder how, and if, they’ll ever leave.
Emily Carpenter is a bestselling author of suspense novels including Burying the Honeysuckle Girls, The Weight of Lies and Gothictown. Born and raised in Birmingham, Alabama, she graduated from Auburn University and worked in New York City as an actor, producer, screenwriter, and behind-the-scenes soap opera assistant for the CBS shows As the World Turns and Guiding Light. She now lives with her family outside Atlanta.
Carpenter will be interviewed in her Conroy Center appearance by the Center’s executive director. Jonathan Haupt is co-editor of the anthology Our Prince of Scribes: Writers Remember Pat Conroy, winner of 17 book awards. A frequent book reviewer for the Charleston Post and Courier, he is also (with Jennifer Bartell Boykin) co-lead of the South Carolina chapter of Author Against Book Bans and (with Claire Bennett) co-mentor to the student leaders of DAYLO: Diversity Awareness Youth Literacy Organization.
To learn more about the Pat Conroy Literary Center, please visit www.patconroyliterarycenter.org.
