Brock Clarke

The author of An Arsonist's Guide to Writers' Homes in New England--a staff favorite--is back with another wry and insightful novel, this time featuring the alternating voices of a confused young boy and his slightly unstable therapist. Exley is "a seriously playful novel about the interweave of literature ... (more)and life"--Kirkus Reviews

Clarke set the literary world aflame with his novel An Arsonist’s Guide to Writers’ Homes in New England. In his new book, darkly funny and touchingly absurd, he takes on the voice of a precocious but delusional nine-year-old who is convinced he can save his comatose (awake, but absent) father by ... (more)finding the (dead) author Frederick Exley.

A novel disguised as a memoir, a mystery cloaked in humor, and an artful piece of literature, this is the story of Sam Pulsifer who, as a teenager, accidentally torched the Emily Dickinson house, killing two people in the process. After paying his dues, he pursues a quiet life until the past comes crashing ... (more)through his front door. As the homes of Robert Frost, Edith Wharton, Herman Melville, and Nathaniel Hawthorne go up in smoke, Sam becomes the number one suspect. Finding the real culprit seems the only way to clear his name, but sometimes there's a terrible price to pay for the truth.

Two brilliant young novelists go toe to toe in our wrestling ring of words. With his hilarious, frenetic new novel Mine All Mine, the story of a security guard out to save his livelihood and his love from a master thief, Adam Davies delivers what is is surely his best work yet. Joining him is breakout ... (more)writer Brock Clarke, who scintillates with a heartfelt tale of an accidental arsonist trying to clear his name.

Brock Clarke will read from and sign copies of his marvelously titled novel, An Arsonist's Guide to Writers' Homes in New England (now available in paperback).
After spending 10 years in prison for accidentally burning down Emily Dickinson’s house and killing two people in the process, Sam Pulsifer ... (more)is determined to start a new life. But when the houses of Mark Twain, Robert Frost, Edith Wharton, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Herman Melville, and Nathaniel Hawthorne start going up in smoke, Sam's past comes back to haunt him. In this comic, literary "whodunit," Clarke manages to skewer just about everything in today's literary culture—authors, fictional memoirs and factual novels, bookstores, reading groups, English professors, and even Harry Potter.

A typical Literary Picnic evening follows this schedule:
5:20 - 6:00 p.m. – Our Young Docents offer thorough (and often thoroughly hilarious) guided tours of Thurber House.

6:15 p.m. – Picnicking begins! Guests are welcome to pack their own picnic, or order one of our festive dinners, featuring ... (more)the culinary delights of Party Panache. Don't forget to bring your lawn chairs or blankets. Alcoholic beverages are permitted.

7:00 p.m. – Our guest for the evening takes the stage. Afterward, the guest signs books in the front parlor.

Author Brock Clarke will be signing his book The Arsonist's Guide to Writers' Homes in New England