Thursday, April 24th
7:00pm
Join us for an incredible evening with award-winning author Caoilinn Hughes! With readings, a special performance, and an author Q&A, this is a night certainly not to be missed!
Books will be available for sale at the event through our incredible partners, Print: A Bookstore
About The Book
“A bold, beautiful, complex novel, and I can’t wait to read what Hughes writes next. She, too, is an unstoppable force.” —New York Times Book Review
“A tale about sisterhood, a novel of ideas, a chronicle of our collective follies, a requiem for our agonizing species, The Alternatives unfolds in a prose full of gorgeous surprises and glows with intelligence, compassion, and beauty.” —Hernan Diaz
From the writer Anthony Doerr calls “a massive talent,” the story of four brilliant Irish sisters, orphaned in childhood, who scramble to reconnect when the oldest disappears into the Irish countryside
The Flattery sisters were plunged prematurely into adulthood when their parents died in tragic circumstances. Now in their thirties—all single, all with PhDs—they are each attempting to do meaningful work in a rapidly foundering world. The four lead disparate, distanced lives, from classrooms in Connecticut to ritzy catering gigs in London’s Notting Hill, until one day their oldest sister, a geologist haunted by a terrible awareness of the earth’s future, abruptly vanishes from her work and home. Together for the first time in years, the Flatterys descend on the Irish countryside in search of a sister who doesn’t want to be found. Sheltered in a derelict bungalow, they reach into their common past, confronting both old wounds and a desperately uncertain future. Warm, fiercely witty, and unexpectedly hopeful, The Alternatives is an unforgettable portrait of a family perched on our collective precipice, told by one of Ireland’s most gifted storytellers.
Learn more at https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/723051/the-alternatives-by-caoilinn-hughes/
About the Author
Caoilinn Hughes is the author of Orchid & the Wasp, which won the Collyer Bristow Prize and was longlisted for the International Dublin Literary Award, and The Wild Laughter,whichwon the Royal Society of Literature’s Encore Award and was longlisted for the International Dylan Thomas Prize. She was recently the Oscar Wilde Centre Writer Fellow at Trinity College Dublin, and is now a Cullman Fellow at New York Public Library.Photo: © Robin Christian
Meet the Artists!
Allison McCall (she/her) is a theatre artist, theatre educator, Food Network enthusiast, and book worm. She has been a proud member of Mad Horse Theatre Co. (MHTC) since 2015, having recently stepped into the role of Artistic Director in 2024. By day, she is the Theatre Company Coordinator of Maddy’s Theatre at the Children’s Museum & Theatre of Maine (CMTM). Recent credits include: Women Laughing Alone With Salad (Tori), Tumacho (Catalina), Heroes of the Fourth Turning (Emily), POTUS…Keep Him Alive (Jean), When We Were Young and Unafraid (Mary Anne) with MHTC; Charlotte’s Web (Charlotte) and Corduroy (Corduroy U/S) at CMTM; Waiting for Alice (playwright); Come Home (writer/director) for Damnationland 2024. Other local credits include Good Theater, Fenix Theatre Co., PortFringe, etc. Allison holds a BA in Theatre (Acting Concentration) and Art History from Muhlenberg College and studied Performance Studies at Goldsmiths, University of London. She has a codependent miniature schnauzer named Ichabod. Currently reading: Elphie by Gregory McGuire. @sonnymccall421
Marie Stewart Harmon (@smallstew) has been performing professionally in Maine for over a decade as an actor, improviser, model, voice actor, occasional murderer or detective for your mystery parties. She is a proud company member of @madhorsetheatre since 2014; most recent credits include Julia in Edward Albee’s A Delicate Balance, Prudence in TUMACHO, and Dusty in POTUS or you may see her at the Box Office. Coming up next is Grumbo’s Big Night for @portfringe2025, follow @grrrumbo if you like gross little weirdos. While she isn’t creating theatre she can be found supporting Maine’s creative makers with her family’s business, @lisamariesmadeinmaine. Thanks for the love and support from her dubbers. Always.
Lauren Stockless (she/her) is excited to be participating in this reading! She graduated from Colby College with a BA in Theatre & Dance/English Literature, and then earned a MSc in Theatre and Performance Studies at the University of Edinburgh. Lauren is a proud company member with Mad Horse Theater Company, and is heavily involved in local theater as a director, dramaturg, and actor. Some past favorite shows include: Women Laughing Alone with Salad (Director, Mad Horse), POTUS: Or, Behind Every Great Dumbass are Seven Women Trying to Keep Him Alive (Director, Mad Horse), The Thin Place (Co-director, Portland Theater Festival), White (Jane, Mad Horse), Pass Over (Production Stage Manager, Portland Theater Festival), Twelfth Night (Director, Edinburgh University Shakespeare Company), and You Got Older (Jenny, Mad Horse). Lauren is also the Events and Marketing Coordinator for the Maine Irish Heritage Center!