The Blue Hill Public Library and Blue Hill Books are cosponsoring an author talk with Maine author Martha Tod Dudman for her new novel Sunrise and the Real World on Thursday January 18 at 7pm in the library's Howard Room.

When Lorraine, a recent college graduate, starts work at a residential treatment center for troubled teens, she quickly finds herself absorbed into a world very distant from the idyllic lobsters-and-lighthouses fairy tale she had always associated with Maine. Instead, she discovers a landscape of abused and angry teenagers, illicit romance, and danger. Still, she grows to love the place and its people until events shatter her confidence in the world and her own morality. Years later, disheartened and battered by life, Lorraine is unexpectedly drawn back to that world to confront the person she was, the choices she made, and the bitter ghosts that still haunt her. In Sunrise and the Real World, Martha Tod Dudman has penned a taut and spellbinding coming-of-age novel that will stay with you long into the night.

Martha Tod Dudman lives in Maine and is the author of Dawn, Expecting to Fly, Black Olives, and Augusta, Gone, which was adapted as an award-winning film. Dudman is a Director of the Maine Humanities Council, a Director at Bar Harbor Bank & Trust and a Selectman for the Town of Mount Desert. She was President and General Manager of a group of radio stations in Ellsworth and Bangor, then worked with Gary Friedmann & Associates as a professional fundraising consultant, helping raise millions of dollars for Maine nonprofits. Over the years she has served on many boards including the Maine Association of Broadcasters and National Association of Broadcasters, Bangor Rotary Club, and the Northeast Harbor Library

This event will be held in the library's Howard Room, and copies of the book will be available for purchase from Blue Hill Books. For more information, please call the library at 374-5515 or email Assistant Director Kayleigh Thomas at kayleigh.thomas@bhpl.net.