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UNB Saint John’s Lorenzo Virtual Book Club will feature author Lesley Crewe reading from her latest novel, The Spoon Stealer, on Sunday, Dec. 5, at 2 p.m.

Born into a basket of clean sheets – ruining a perfectly good load of laundry – Emmeline never quite fit in on her family’s rural Nova Scotian farm. After suffering multiple losses in the First World War, her family became so heavy with grief, toxicity and mental illness that Emmeline felt their weight smothering her. And so, she fled across the Atlantic and built her life in England. Now she is retired and living in a small coastal town with her best friend, Vera, an excellent conversationalist. Vera is also a small white dog, and so Emmeline is making an effort to talk to more humans. When she joins a memoir-writing course at the library, her classmates don’t know what to make of her. As her past unfolds for her audience, friendships form, a bonus in a rather lonely life. She even shares with them her third-biggest secret: she has liberated hundreds of spoons over her lifetime – from the local library, Cary Grant, Winston Churchill. She is a compulsive spoon stealer.

When Emmeline unexpectedly inherits the farm she grew up on, she knows she needs to leave her new friends and go see the farm and what remains of her family one last time.

Lesley Crewe is a bestselling author, columnist, screenwriter and keynote speaker. Her first novel, Relative Happiness, was shortlisted for the Margaret and John Savage First Book Award in 2006. It was adapted into a movie of the same name, which debuted in 2015, going to film festivals all over the world and winning Best Picture at the Nova Scotia Screen Awards that year.

The Lorenzo Virtual Book Club will be a moderated discussion and all are welcome to attend. The conversation will take place on Microsoft Teams and will later be featured in the Lorenzo by Night podcast. Important to note is that the registrants can be individuals, book clubs, or groups of friends who have bubbled. Also, participants can be from Saint John, other communities in New Brunswick, other parts of Canada and beyond. Participants must register in advance by emailing lorenzo@unb.ca.

The Lorenzo Reading Series acknowledges the support of the Canada Council for the Arts, The League of Canadian Poets, the New Brunswick Literary Promotion Program, UNB Saint John and its private reading sponsors.

SPOILER ALERT: A spoiler alert notice will be issued at the end of the first part of the discussion to inform participants that, during the second portion of the evening, they will hear plot twists and, potentially, the ending. The assumption is that every participant has read the book prior to the event.

For more information email lorenzo@unb.ca.