Night Luster

Laura Harrington s award winning plays, musicals, and operas have been widely produced across America, in Canada, and Europe in venues ranging from off off Broadway to Houston Grand Opera She is the 2008 Kleban Award Winner for most promising librettist in American Musical Theatre Harrington has twice won both the Massachusetts Cultural Council Award and the Clauder Competition for best new play in New England A Catalog of Birds, her new novel, published by Europa Editions, is set in 1970, a watershed moment in American history, A Catalog of Birds tells the story of the Flynn family and the devastating impact of the Vietnam War At the heart of the novel is the relationship between siblings Nell and Billy Flynn Nell excels academically and is headed to college and a career in science Billy, a passionate artist, enlists as a pilot to fulfill his lifelong dream of flying The only survivor when his helicopter is shot down, he returns home so seriously wounded he may never use his right hand again As Billy struggles to regain the life he once had, Nell and their family will have to do all that s possible to save him Taut and true, A Catalog of Birds is a beautiful book about family, loss and love Its memorable characters will haunt you long after you put it down Claire Messud, award winning author of The Woman Upstairs You know the Flynns They re that family down the street or perhaps your own family imperfect, loving, loyal, angry, secretive, stubborn, barely making ends meet, church going but not always believing, each carrying burdens they can never quite put down At once spare and richly symphonic, A Catalog of Birds brings you into the very marrow of the Flynns and those in their orbit, each page wrapping you in tightly until you can t let go even after the words stop Get a copy for a friend you ll want to have someone to talk to about it as soon as you finish Juliette Fay, best selling author of The Tumbling Turner SistersHer first novel, Alice Bliss, Viking Penguin is a Boston Globe bestseller and the winner of the Massachusetts Book Award in Fiction Alice Bliss has been lauded as a Discover Great New Writers at Barnes Noble, Best Books of the Summer at Entertainment Weekly, a People Pick at People Magazine and Best Books of 2011 by the School Library Journal Foreign rights have been sold in the UK, Italy and Denmark.Alice Bliss was chosen by the Richard and Judy Book Club in the UK, where it was featured in all WH Smith Book Shops throughout Britain.Laura teaches playwriting at MIT where she was awarded the 2009 Levitan Prize for Excellence in Teaching She has also been a frequent guest artist at Tufts, Harvard, Wellesley, and the University of Iowa and most recently, the Jack Kerouac Writer in Residence at UMASS Lowell.She is currently writing Alice Bliss, the musical, with a commission from Playwrights Horizons in NYC She is working with the composer Jenny Giering, lyricist Adam Gwon, and director Mark Brokaw.Book Clubs If you d like me to visit your book club in person or by phone or Skype please contact me Also, please Like my page on Facebook at facebook LHarringtonbooksRead at Books lauraharringtonbooksTheatre laura harrington