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Virtual: Maisy Card, "These Ghosts Are Family" in Conversation with Elizabeth Bobrick

Join us for a night of secrets and the story of generations

Please click here to register to attend

These Ghosts Are FamilyStanford Solomon’s shocking, thirty-year-old secret is about to change the lives of everyone around him. Stanford has done something no one could ever imagine. He is a man who faked his own death and stole the identity of his best friend. Stanford Solomon is actually Abel Paisley.

And now, nearing the end of his life, Stanford is about to meet his firstborn daughter, Irene Paisley, a home health aide who has unwittingly shown up for her first day of work to tend to the father she thought was dead.

These Ghosts Are Family revolves around the consequences of Abel’s decision and tells the story of the Paisley family from colonial Jamaica to present-day Harlem. There is Vera, whose widowhood forced her into the role of a single mother. There are two daughters and a granddaughter who have never known they are related. And there are others, like the houseboy who loved Vera, whose lives might have taken different courses if not for Abel Paisley’s actions.

This “rich and layered story” (Kirkus Reviews) explores the ways each character wrestles with their ghosts and struggles to forge independent identities outside of the family and their trauma. The result is a “beguiling…vividly drawn, and compelling” (BookPage, starred review) portrait of a family and individuals caught in the sweep of history, slavery, migration, and the more personal dramas of infidelity, lost love, and regret. 

Maisy CardMaisy Card holds an MFA in Fiction from Brooklyn College and is a public librarian. Her writing has appeared in Lenny Letter, School Library Journal, Agni, Sycamore Review, Liars’ League NYC, and Ampersand Review. Maisy was born in St. Catherine, Jamaica, but was raised in Queens, New York. Maisy earned an MLIS from Rutgers University and a BA in English and American Studies from Wesleyan University. She is the author of These Ghosts Are Family.

Elizabeth Bobrick is a Visiting Scholar in Wesleyan’s Department of Classical Studies. Through Wesleyan’s Center for Prison Education, she has taught Greek tragedy, mythology, and the first-person essay, a course she taught for many years for Wesleyan’s Department of English. She is a member of the Classics and Social Justice Committee of the national Society of Classical Studies. Her publications range from scholarly articles on Aristophanes, Sophocles, and Theophrastus to book reviews and essays on an array of topics, from tragic heroes and baseball to Santa Claus and teaching anxiety. She received her Ph.D. in Classics from the Johns Hopkins University.

Please click here to register to attend
Registered attendees will receive a link to the virtual meeting

Event Date: 
Wednesday, March 10, 2021 - 7:00pm EST
Event address: 
These Ghosts Are Family: A Novel By Maisy Card Cover Image
$17.00
ISBN: 9781982117443
Availability: Usually Ships in 1-5 Days
Published: Simon & Schuster - January 5th, 2021

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