Novel set in Waterbury will kick off townwide book club
April 25, 2022 | By Cheryl Casey | Correspondent
Author Catherine Drake visits Bridgeside Books recently with a copy of her new novel set in Waterbury titled, "The Treehouse on Dog River Road." Photo by Cheryl Casey
Nothing brings people together like a good story.
That’s what Bridgeside Books owner Katya d’Angelo is hoping to achieve by launching One Book, One Town, a community reading program in Waterbury this summer.
Think of it as a giant book club that the whole town is invited to join: Everyone is invited to read the same book in the same time period. The goal is for readers then to come together in both organized and organic ways to have conversations about the book’s themes. By extension, these conversations build connections.
Such programs have taken off in other places and often the greatest challenge is selecting the book. For d’Angelo, however, the choice was easy: “The Treehouse on Dog River Road,” a brand-new first novel by local author Catherine Drake, of Stowe.
Set for release on May 10, the story takes place in Waterbury and follows the emotional journey of 28-year-old Hannah Spencer as she strategizes ways to jumpstart her life after being laid off from a depressing job. Her journey includes a geographic one as she relocates from Boston to Vermont to spend a summer taking care of her sister’s kids. A treehouse project and a handsome next-door neighbor are the catalysts for some unexpected soul-searching in Hannah’s head and heart.
Although traditional publisher types categorize the book as women’s romance fiction, Drake insisted that “it’s not super mushy. There are more themes than a rom-com kind of book.” Noting that male readers so far have enjoyed it, Drake described the book’s main themes as community, family, “and how and where to build your best life.”
“Vermont was my first character,” she added.
Given that Drake has lived in Stowe for the last 11 years, some may wonder why she set her story in Waterbury. “My community is from Morrisville to Waterbury. That is where I live,” Drake explained. “I’ve always loved the vibe of Waterbury and it fit what I was looking for in terms of community.”
After years working in land acquisition and conservation in New Jersey and developing a love for Vermont during vacation time, Drake and her husband moved to Stowe. “I always wondered if I had it in me to write a book,” she said.
In 2017 she said she started noticing many college-educated 20-somethings hating their big-city jobs and paralyzed about what to do. She finally decided to see if she could indeed write a book.
Drake’s fictional heroine, Hannah, “is living a life she never meant to live” in a corporate job, but being laid off forces her to stop and reassess. “The main portion of the story is based on some of my life experience,” Drake acknowledged, “but the narrative spark came from recognizing how where you live informs your life.”
Now in her second year as owner of Bridgeside Books, d’Angelo said she was inspired to create the One Book, One Town project by the challenges of the last couple of years. “This was kind of a nice way to bring people together in a lighted-hearted, joyful way,” she explained.
The concept started in big cities
Community reading programs like this have their origin in the 1998 initiative, “If All of Seattle Read the Same Book,” created by Nancy Pearl, then-executive director of the Washington Center for the Book at Seattle Public Library.
In many interviews since then, Pearl has acknowledged that her goal was to take a diverse group of readers sharing life in a city and create community through conversations about a book that addressed some common aspects of being human. Her selection then was “The Sweet Hereafter” (1992), by Russel Banks, about a small town grappling with the tragedy of a school bus accident that claimed the lives of 14 kids.
In 2001, “One Book, One City” was launched in Chicago with Harper Lee’s “To Kill a Mockingbird” as the novel. That program had enough resources at its disposal to garner massive media attention, spreading the idea across the country. Today, the Library of Congress counts some 400 “One Book” programs at various educational and readership levels.
Having lived in Waterbury for seven years, d’Angelo said she has felt the indomitable spirit of the Waterbury community, especially in response to the “group trauma” of Tropical Storm Irene and more recently, the COVID-19 pandemic. “That narrative [of Irene] is still fresh,” she observed, “for people who were here and those who were not. This book addresses that same spirit.”
And the connections in Drake’s story are likely to resonate with readers regardless of how long they have had a connection to Waterbury. “Both people who grew up here and transplants will like this book,” d’Angelo said.
Both d’Angelo and Drake see broad appeal in the novel, which is appropriate for ages 15 and up. They hope that this “smart romance,” as d’Angelo categorizes it, inspires organic conversations among friends, co-workers, and even strangers.
“I would love to go for a walk one day and see people sitting on benches reading the book,” d’Angelo confessed.
Drake hopes that book’s central message will resonate with readers. She summed it up as: “You have to like where you live to really be happy. Don’t be afraid to make a change if you can.”
The author, however, also hopes that local readers will acknowledge and forgive the creative license she took with details like place names and town rituals for the sake of the story.
“I do know that Waterbury doesn’t do its Fourth of July parade on the fourth of July,” she laughed.
“The Treehouse on Dog River Road,” by Catherine Drake is published by She Writes Press and can be pre-ordered at Bridgeside Books. The Waterbury Public Library also will have copies to borrow.