LITERATURE + LECTURES

Blue Willow Bookshop presents Gail Caldwell Wednesday, September 22 at 7pm. We loved Gail Caldwell's memoir A Strong West Wind and are very excited to welcome her to Houston, where she will discuss and sign her newest book, Let's Take the Long Way Home.

Let's Take the Long Way Home details Gail's own coming-of-age in midlife. In it, she writes frankly about the transition from being a fiercely private person to learning to share her life with an exuberant puppy and a new best friend, Caroline Knapp—a fellow writer, AA member, dog lover, and acute observer of life.

Together these two fiercely private, independent women relax into a friendship more profound than either of them ever expected, one that thrived on their shared interests as well as their parallel struggles with alcoholism and loneliness. They grow increasingly inseparable until Caroline is suddenly diagnosed with Stage IV lung cancer. Gail Caldwell writes: “It’s the oldest of stories; I had a friend and we shared everything, and then she died and so we shared that, too.”

Gail Caldwell is the former chief book critic for The Boston Globe, where she was a staff writer and critic for more than twenty years. In 2001, she was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Criticism.

Join us for what is sure to be a memorable evening.