Middletown, RI – Island Books announced on Tuesday that author Gregory Blake Smith will be at their store on Wednesday, June 27th a7 pm.

Smith will be reading from and singing copies of his Newport-based work of historical fiction, The Maze at Windermere. According to a press release from Island Books, The Maze at Windermere explores five time periods (2011, 1896, 1863, 1778 and 1692) of Newport history with a spellbinding cast of characters that intersect in our City by the Sea.

“Smith weaves these intersecting worlds into a brilliant tapestry of ambition and desire while charting a voyage into the maze of the human heart from past to present. Simply brilliant! And, an ISLAND BOOKS Staff Pick,” the press release states.

Island Books shares some highlights and tidbits from the book include;

  • 2011 – A reckless wager between a tennis pro and a drunken party guest launches an odyssey that braids together three centuries of love and ambition, aspiration and adversity.
  • 1896 – A witty and urbane bachelor of the Gilded Age embarks on a high-risk scheme to marry into a fortune.
  • 1863 -The young writer Henry James, soon to make his mark on the world, turns himself to his craft with harrowing social consequences.
  • 1778 – An aristocratic British officer during the American Revolution carries on a courtship that leads to murder.
  •  1692 – In Newport’s earliest days, a tragically orphaned Quaker girl imagines a way forward for herself and the slave girl she has inherited.

Gregory Blake Smith is the award-winning author of three previous novels, including The Divine Comedy of John Venner, a New York Times Notable Book. His short story collection, The Law of Miracles, won the Juniper Prize and the Minnesota Book Award. He has received a Stegner Fellowship at Stanford University and the George Bennett Fellowship at Phillips Exeter Academy and grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Bush Foundation, and the Minnesota State Arts Board. Smith is currently the Lloyd P. Johnson-Norwest Professor of English and the Liberal Arts at Carleton College.

This event is free and open to the public.

Island Books is located at 575 E. Main Road in Middletown.