An Intimate Evening Salon with Elizabeth Birkelund and Helen Simonson

Tuesday, 6:30 pm EDT June 4, 2024

The Center for Fiction Members Lounge

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Join us for a special evening with two remarkable authors, Elizabeth Birkelund and Helen Simonson, to discuss their sensational new novels. Birkelund (The Dressmaker) transports you to the French countryside in her new novel A Light in Northern Provence. The book follows Ilse Lund, a translator from Greenland who travels to France to translate the works of poet Geoffrey Labaye. Charmed by Provençal life and Labaye’s son Frey, Ilse must choose between the security of her Greenlandic home and the life of her dreams.

Simonson, the New York Times bestselling author of Major Pettigrew’s Last Stand, has crafted a romantic work of feminist historical fiction in her new book The Hazelbourne Ladies Motorcycle and Flying Club. The novel follows Constance Haverhill, a woman who is forced to give up her job and her home after the men return from the First World War. She meets Poppy Wirrall, a spunky young woman who runs a ladies’ motorcycle club, and her handsome brother Harris. As Constance finds camaraderie in the club, she must wrestle with the loss of the freedom she had during the war.

Birkelund and Simonson’s new works both brim with romantic and escapist charm. Enjoy an intimate discussion of the two novels in our elegant Members Lounge—the perfect setting to engage with the authors about their immersive stories of self-discovery. Space for this event will be limited and the price of admission includes a copy of A Light in the Northern Provence or The Hazelbourne Ladies Motorcycle and Flying Club. Guests will have an opportunity to mingle with each other at a special wine bar before the event. Readings will begin at 7pm ET.

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In Conversation

  • Elizabeth Birkelund © Sigrid Estrada

    Elizabeth Birkelund

    Elizabeth Birkelund

    Elizabeth Birkelund is the author of The Runaway Wife and The Dressmaker. Her novel, A Northern Light in Provence, will be published in May 2024. Prior to writing novels, Elizabeth was the personal finance columnist for Cosmopolitan magazine and a full-time freelance writer for national magazines including Glamour, Self, Victoria, Working Woman, and Institutional Investor. She has served on the boards of the National Humanities Center and The Center for Fiction. She received a fellowship from the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts. She lives in New York City.


    Photo Credit: Sigrid Estrada

  • Helen Simonson headshot Large

    Helen Simonson

    Helen Simonson

    Helen Simonson was born in England and spent her teenage years in a small village in East Sussex. A graduate of the London School of Economics, she lives in the United States and is a dual citizen and proud New Yorker. Married, with two sons, she is the New York Times bestselling author of Major Pettigrew’s Last Stand and The Summer Before the War.

Featured Books

  1. . 
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    A Light in Northern Provence

    By Elizabeth Birkelund

    Published by Random House Publishing Group

    PURCHASE

    Ilse Erlund is a translator who lives in a house on stilts along the west coast of Greenland. Isolated and restless in her world by the sea, she convinces her publisher to pay for a trip to the country she has never visited but whose language she speaks fluently: France. Her mission is to translate the verses of Geoffrey “Po” Labaye, a charismatic poet known as “the last living troubadour of Provence.”

    Upon arrival in the medieval hilltop village of Belle Rivière, Ilse falls under the spell of the Provençal way of life, captivated by the air, the sun, the vibrant spring colors, and the dulcet sounds of the dialect. Soon enough, Ilse is captivated by the poet, too, and she and Po develop a daily rhythm and warm camaraderie—which is disrupted by the arrival of the poet’s son, Frey. Though he has a fiancée back in Paris, Frey turns his attention to Ilse, and suddenly she is forced to learn another language, one her translation skills have not prepared her to decode. Where—and with whom—does her future lie?

    With an eye and ear attuned to the sensibilities of French life, Elizabeth Birkelund has created a love story about a woman forced to choose between the security of her quiet northern home and the possibility of the life of her dreams.

  2. . 
    Cover - HAZELBOURNE LADIES Large

    The Hazelbourne Ladies Motorcycle and Flying Club

    By Helen Simonson

    Published by Random House Publishing Group

    PURCHASE

    It is the summer of 1919 and Constance Haverhill is without prospects. Now that all the men have returned from the front, she has been asked to give up her cottage and her job at the estate she helped run during the war. While she looks for a position as a bookkeeper or—horror—a governess, she’s sent as a lady’s companion to an old family friend who is convalescing at a seaside hotel. Despite having only weeks to find a permanent home, Constance is swept up in the social whirl of Hazelbourne-on-Sea after she rescues the local baronet’s daughter, Poppy Wirrall, from a social faux pas.

    Poppy wears trousers, operates a taxi and delivery service to employ local women, and runs a ladies’ motorcycle club (to which she plans to add flying lessons). She and her friends enthusiastically welcome Constance into their circle. And then there is Harris, Poppy’s recalcitrant but handsome brother—a fighter pilot recently wounded in battle—who warms in Constance’s presence. But things are more complicated than they seem in this sunny pocket of English high society. As the country prepares to celebrate its hard-won peace, Constance and the women of the club are forced to confront the fact that the freedoms they gained during the war are being revoked.

    Whip-smart and utterly transportive, The Hazelbourne Ladies Motorcycle and Flying Club is historical fiction of the highest order: an unforgettable coming-of-age story, a tender romance, and a portrait of a nation on the brink of change.

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