Meet historical fiction author Melanie Benjamin as she discusses her newest novel California Golden and what inspires her. An audience Q&A and a book signing will follow the discussion.
Set in the 1960s, Benjamin's latest novel, California Golden, focuses on sisters Mindy and Ginger who feel abandoned by their mother as she attempts to become one of the first female surfing legends. Feeling neglected and overlooked, the sisters start to search for communities of their own sending them down separate paths. While spotlighting motherhood, family, and generational trauma, the book also explores surf culture, Hollywood parties, and cults. Entertainment Weekly called it "A shimmering rendering . . . pairs the surf culture of the Beach Boys with the sex, drugs, and rock 'n' roll of Daisy Jones & The Six. "
Melanie Benjamin is the author of The New York Times and USA Today bestselling historical novels The Swans of Fifth Avenue, about Truman Capote and his society swans, The Aviator’s Wife, a novel about Anne Morrow Lindbergh, and Mistress of the Ritz, based on the true story of the American woman who ran the Ritz during World War II, catering to the Nazi occupiers by day while working for the Resistance by night. Her novels have been translated in over fifteen languages, featured in national magazines such as Good Housekeeping, People, and Entertainment Weekly, and optioned for film.
Melanie is a native of the Midwest, having grown up in Indianapolis, Indiana, where she pursued her first love, theater. After raising her two sons, Melanie, a life-long reader (including being the proud winner, two years in a row, of her hometown library’s summer reading program!), decided to pursue a writing career. After writing her own parenting column for a local magazine, and winning a short story contest, Melanie published two contemporary novels under her real name, Melanie Hauser, before turning to historical fiction.
This event is generously sponsored by The Urbana Free Library Foundation.
Conveniently located at the corner of Race and Green in downtown Urbana.
