The event promises to be a literary celebration with The Birth House author Ami McKay making the introduction, as well as an interview featuring writer and former CBC host Stephanie Domet.
Special music - to echo the singing in The Memento - will be provided by the Petal’s End Choir.
Berwick native Conlin says she is excited about her first adult novel in 14 years. There is an extra buzz around the launch due to the award-winning status of her debut novel Heave.
The Memento has been described by Sheree Fitch as a new genre - literary gothic.
“I want as many readers as possible to enter the world created by one of Nova Scotia’s most gifted writers and storytellers,” Fitch has said – and no wonder.
Written from the perspective of a girl on the cusp of womanhood, it is full of ghosts, the supernatural and past tragedy.
Fancy Mosher is definitely from a haunted North Mountain tribe. Her home could be Harbourville or Margaretsville. She lives and works in the servants' quarters at Petal's End, a formerly illustrious estate belonging to the wealthy Parker family. The summer she turns 12, she begins to experience firsthand the magnitude of secrets held within the estate's walls and buried in its lush gardens.
Fancy’s story makes for one compelling read. The last half I found as gripping as the popular thriller The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
Conlin says she grew up absorbing ghost stories and ballads.
“When I was a teenager, I asked my mother why she was never afraid and she said that only those who had violated a moral code had reason to fear the dead,” she says. “You can’t escape your memories, my mother has always said. I believe this too.”
Conlin, who lives in Greenwich, hosted the popular 2012 CBC summer radio series Fear Itself. She works as an online writing instructor and mentor at the University of Toronto’s School of Continuing Studies.
If you go:
The May 5 book launch begins at 7 p.m. at the Al Whittle Theatre, Main Street, Wolfville.
