Friday July 10 – 5:30-7:00 PM EDT
Price: Free
Registration: Seating is limited; please call to reserve your spot: 843-379-7025.
Venue: Pat Conroy Literary Center | 601 Bladen St., Beaufort
Join us for an evening celebrating the paperback release of Meg Waite Clayton’s most recent NYTimes Bestselling book, Typewriter Beach.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
New York Times bestseller and book club favorite Meg Waite Clayton is the author of nine novels, most recently the instant USA Today bestseller Typewriter Beach and the international bestsellers The Postmistress of Paris and The Last Train to London. Her books have been featured on Good Morning America and the New York Times Book Review Editors’ Choice list, and in People and other newspapers and magazines all over the world. They have been IndieNext, Library Reads, LoanStars librarians, USA Today, Book of the Month Club, Costco and Target Book Club, and Amazon Editors’ picks, as well as finalists for the National Jewish Book Award, the Langum Prize, and Barbara Kingsolver’s Bellwether Prize for Socially Engaged Fiction. Her The Wednesday Sisters is one of Entertainment Weekly’s 25 Essential Best Friend Novels of all time. Clayton’s books have been published in 24 languages. Her screenplay for The Last Train to London was chosen for the Meryl Streep- and Nicole Kidman-sponsored The Writers Lab.
Meg’s novels draw on the history of real women facing the kinds of challenges women face, and women defying the odds to make differences, large and small, in the world. Inspirations include Mary Jayne Gold, Truus Wijsmuller, Beatrix Potter, Martha Gellhorn, and other journalists and photographers, and the women of Hollywood past and present.
ABOUT THE BOOK:
1957. Isabella Giori is ten months into a standard seven-year studio contract when she auditions with Hitchcock. Just weeks later, she is sequestered by the studio’s “fixer” in a tiny Carmel cottage, waiting and dreading.
Meanwhile, next door, Léon Chazan is annoyed as hell when Iz interrupts his work on yet another screenplay he won’t be able to sell, because he’s been blacklisted. Soon, they’re together in his roadster, speeding down the fog-shrouded Big Sur coast.
2018. Twenty-six-year-old screenwriter Gemma Chazan, in Carmel to sell her grandfather’s cottage, finds a hidden safe full of secrets—raising questions about who the screenwriter known simply as Chazan really was, and whether she can live up to his name.
In graceful prose and with an intimate understanding of human nature, Meg Waite Clayton captures the joys and frustrations of being a writer, being a woman, being a star, and being in love. Typewriter Beach is the story of two women separated by generations—a tale of ideas and ideals, passion and persistence, creativity, politics, and family.
* An instant USA Today Bestseller
“An irresistible story of 1950s Hollywood … Readers will be riveted.” – Publishers Weekly (starred review)
“Clayton delivers another top-tier dual-timeline historical. Thought-provoking and timely, it’s sure to be a big summer hit.” –Library Journal (starred review)
“A fascinating family mystery that is begging to be unraveled … emotional, atmospheric writing … and a beautiful, deep love story.” – #1 New York Times bestseller Ana Huang / TODAY Show
* TODAY Show Best Historical Fiction for August and 5 Best Reads for August *
* Washington Post 5 Historical Novels to Read This Summer *
* Top 10 Library Read (thank you, Librarians!) *
* Los Angeles Times 10 Reads for a Beach Day *
* Publishers Weekly Summer Read *
* Amazon Editors’ Choice *
* Woman’s World 10 Gripping New Historical Fiction Mystery Books to Get Lost In *
* USA Today 15 New Releases to Read Now *
* Zibby Books That’ll Make You Swoon *
* AARP Summer Read *
* Zibby Most Anticipated Book of 2025 *
* Modern Mrs Darcy Summer Read *
* Alabama Booksmith Signed First Editions Selection *
* Book Report Network Readers’ Top 6 Pick *
* A Hadassah Magazine Summer Read *
* Woman’s World Book Club Pick *
* Alta Journal Books to Read in July *
* Book Browse Best of July *
* A University of Michigan LSA Summer Read*
“Under the shimmer of 1950s movie magic and the shadows of the McCarthy era, this romantic, moody mystery spotlights life in front of the camera.” – Kimberly McGee, Lake Travis Community Library, Austin, TX, on the Library Reads Top 10 list
