Good afternoon everyone and welcome to another edition of The Avid Reader. Today our guest is Robin MacArthur author of Heart Spring Mountain published in January by Eco.

Robin lives in Marlboro Vermont not far from where she was born and where the novel takes place. Her debut collection of short stories, Half Wild won the 2017 PEN New England award for fiction.

She is also one half of the musical duo Red Heart the Ticker, alongside her husband, Tyler Gibbons. And I suggest you check out their music on YouTube or at their website RHTT.
Heart Spring Mountain is a novel about death, disaster, love, loss and heartbreak. These things, things we have all experienced are told through the lens of three generations of women. The absent protagonist, Bonnie disappears during 2011’s Tropical Storm Irene and Vale leaves her bartending and exotic dancing job in New Orleans and comes back to her little town in Vermont to try and find her mom.

During this quest, Vale reunites with the matriarch of this family Hazel and her widowed cousin-in-law Deb.

Vale, when she is not searching for her mother, is intrigued by the family’s history and tries to preserve it as she uncovers secrets about it.

Some of the other characters are painted just as distinctly as our main protagonists. Bonnie’s mom, Deb’s husband and the absent Bonnie herself.

The novel is evocative as it brings up memories and experiences we all share in an almost poetic fashion and at the same time tells us that there is always room for hope and change.

With that welcome Robin and thanks for joining us today.