Come walk with our book discussion group at Nepaug Reservoir.  This group reads a book each month and discusses it during our walk.  All adults are welcome to join our discussions.  Copies of the book are available for you at our circulation desk in advance of the meeting.  We will place a hold for you if a copy is not immediately available.  Please use the registration link in the program listing, if you are not a regular member of the group so we will know to expect you.  If you have questions about the group or the selection, please contact Beth Van Ness at the library at 860-693-5800 or email bvanness@libraryconnection.info.

The bestselling author of the Kurt Wallander series delivers a “short, beautiful, and ultimately life-affirming novel” about the path to self-acceptance (Booklist).

From the prize-winning “master of atmosphere” comes the surprising and affecting story of a man well past middle age who suddenly finds himself on the threshold of renewal (The Boston Globe).

Living on a tiny island that is surrounded by ice during the long winter months, Fredrik Welin is so lost to the world that he cuts a hole in the ice every morning and lowers himself into the freezing water to remind himself that he is alive. Haunted by memories of the terrible mistake that drove him to this island and away from a successful career as a surgeon, he lives in a stasis so complete that an anthill grows undisturbed in his living room.

When an unexpected visitor disrupts this frigid existence, Frederik begins an eccentric, elegiac journey—one that displays the full height of Henning Mankell’s storytelling powers. A deeply human tale of loss and redemption, Italian Shoes is “a voyage into the soul of a man” expertly crafted with “snares that Mankell has hidden with a hunter’s skill inside this spectral landscape” (The Guardian).