Author Heather Abel will be doing a reading and book signing at Sturgis Public Library in Barnstable on Wednesday evening, October 24 from 7:15 PM to 8:15 PM.

Her debut novel, The Optimistic Decade, explores the bloom and fade of idealism and how it forever changes one’s life.  Framed by the oil shale bust and the real estate boom, by protests against Reagan and against the Gulf War, Abel takes us into the lives of five unforgettable characters, and is a sweeping novel about idealism, love, class, and a piece of land that changes everyone who lives on it.

Heather Abel’s writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, the Los Angeles Times, and the online Paris Review among other places. She worked as a reporter and editor for the San Francisco Bay Guardian and High Country News, during which time she talked to gold miners, fossil hounds, Native American environmental activists, and really bored teens in rural Utah. She received an MFA in fiction writing from the New School University, and she’s taught writing at the New School, UMass Amherst, and Smith College. Raised in Santa Monica, she now lives in Northampton, MA with her husband and two daughters, and she dreams of the Colorado high desert.

This event is free and open to the public, but registration is requested.  Call the library at 508-362-6636 or email at sturgisreference@comcast.net