{"id":12729,"date":"2024-03-22T13:22:18","date_gmt":"2024-03-22T13:22:18","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"-0001-11-30T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"-0001-11-30T00:00:00","slug":"concord-new-hampshire-reads-unlikely-animals-annie-hartnett-54481414\/","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nne-concord-monitor-2.newspackstaging.com\/?p=12729","title":{"rendered":"Novel intertwines fictional and real NH"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"The<\/a>
The Concord Reads sign outside the Concord Library for the Unlikely Animals, by Massachusetts writer Annie Hartnett.<\/figcaption><\/figure>

Concord Reads, the one city-one book, community-building program launched in 2002, has awakened from its pandemic hibernation, shaken off sleep, and leapt into 2024 with its choice of Unlikely Animals<\/em>, by Massachusetts writer Annie Hartnett.<\/p>\n

The novel is set in Everton, a fictional Newport, New Hampshire. At its heart is a loving but tortured family, a small town where everyone minds everyone else\u2019s business, Corbin Park, the state\u2019s 19th century private game park for a classroom\u2019s worth of ultra-wealthy, and the opioid crisis that has ravaged so many of the nation\u2019s communities.<\/p>\n

This year\u2019s choice will be added to a growing list of works chosen by Concord Reads, a program run by the Concord Public Library with the support of the Concord Monitor and a host of volunteers. Many of the past selections, but not all, have a tie to New Hampshire or New England. The first book selected was The Bridge of San Luis Rey, <\/em>the 1927 Pulitzer prize-winning novel by Thornton Wilder, who won another Pulitzer for Our Town, <\/em>a play <\/em>written at the MacDowell Colony and set in the town of Peterborough. The people interred at that town\u2019s cemetery played a central role in Thornton\u2019s tale of life and death in \u201cGrover\u2019s Corners.\u201d <\/p>\n

The same is true of Unlikely Animals<\/em>, written while Hartnett was a fellow at the MacDowell Colony. The people interred at Everton\u2019s Maple Street Cemetery narrate, comment and care about the everyday events in the lives of the living in their community. Hartnett entwined her book\u2019s fictional characters with those of real, historic figures. They include Austin Corbin, the 19th century local Newport boy made good who built the giant yellow mansion that lies just over the covered bridge named for him. His game park, with its famous escaping wild boars that figure in the tale, still exists. It is still a hyper-exclusive, secretive place where privileged sports indulge their passion for privacy and hunting.<\/p>\n

The cast of Hartnett\u2019s novel includes Ernest Harold Baynes, the real-life Corbin Park naturalist whose ghost plays a central role in the book and whose writings and photos, complete with the critters he shared his home with, appear in it.<\/p>\n

At times Harnett\u2019s novel is a laugh-out-loud satiric romp, at times a Pink Panther-like act of detective buffoonery, at times a touching story of family love and loss. Hovering over it, grim-reaper like, like novelist John Irving\u2019s \u201cUndertoad,\u201d is the opioid epidemic. Irving, author of many books including The World According to Garp, The<\/em> Hotel New Hampshire<\/em> and A Prayer for<\/em> Owen Meany<\/em>, inspire Hartnett\u2019s writing. She cites him, her experience teaching a succession of fifth-graders, the true-life story of an old woman who fed bears, and her first sight of Corbin\u2019s mansion while visiting friends in Newport, as the inspiration for her second novel.<\/p>\n

Hartnett will be in Concord for the signature event of Concord Reads 2024 on Tuesday, May 14 at the Bank of New Hampshire Stage on Main Street for a discussion led by former public radio host Laura Knoy. Two other events keyed to the book, a discussion of conservationist Baynes\u2019 work at the library at 6 p.m. on May 7, and a 6 p.m. historic tour of Concord\u2019s Old North Cemetery on May 9 will also be held.<\/p>\n

Please visit the Concord Public Library\u2019s website, http:\/\/www.concordnh.gov\/588\/Library<\/a>, for updates and additional information.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Concord Reads, the one city-one book, community-building program launched in 2002, has awakened from its pandemic hibernation, shaken off sleep, and leapt into 2024 with its choice of Unlikely Animals, by Massachusetts writer Annie Hartnett.The novel…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":500,"featured_media":12730,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"newspack_ads_suppress_ads":false,"newspack_popups_has_disabled_popups":false,"newspack_sponsor_sponsorship_scope":"","newspack_sponsor_native_byline_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_native_category_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_style":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_placement":"inherit","_newspack_byline_active":true,"_newspack_byline":"by [Author id=500]Ralph Jimenez[\/Author] For the Monitor","newspack_content_restriction_is_exempt":false,"newspack_featured_image_position":"","newspack_post_subtitle":"","newspack_article_summary_title":"Overview:","newspack_article_summary":"","newspack_hide_updated_date":false,"newspack_show_updated_date":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,508],"tags":[505],"newspack_spnsrs_tax":[],"coauthors":[764],"class_list":["post-12729","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-top-headlines-cm","tag-paywall","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/nne-concord-monitor-2.newspackstaging.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/43214018-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nne-concord-monitor-2.newspackstaging.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12729","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nne-concord-monitor-2.newspackstaging.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nne-concord-monitor-2.newspackstaging.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nne-concord-monitor-2.newspackstaging.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/500"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nne-concord-monitor-2.newspackstaging.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12729"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/nne-concord-monitor-2.newspackstaging.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12729\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12731,"href":"https:\/\/nne-concord-monitor-2.newspackstaging.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12729\/revisions\/12731"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nne-concord-monitor-2.newspackstaging.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/12730"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nne-concord-monitor-2.newspackstaging.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12729"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nne-concord-monitor-2.newspackstaging.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12729"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nne-concord-monitor-2.newspackstaging.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12729"},{"taxonomy":"newspack_spnsrs_tax","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nne-concord-monitor-2.newspackstaging.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fnewspack_spnsrs_tax&post=12729"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nne-concord-monitor-2.newspackstaging.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcoauthors&post=12729"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}