<p> BESTSELLING AUTHOR AT HALLETT LIBRARY, CROSBY</p><p>Bestselling author, Nickolas Butler, of Eau Claire, Wisconsin, will be at the Jessie F. Hallett Memorial Library, Crosby, on Tuesday, June 6 @ 6:30 pm for an Author Talk and book signing. Butler’s first novel Shotgun Lovesongs (2014) opened to rave reviews. Featured in the New York Times Sunday Book Review, critic Jonathan Evison states:</p><p>“Nickolas Butler’s “Shotgun Lovesongs” is a good old-fashioned novel, a sure- footed and unabashedly sentimental first effort that deserves to be among the standouts in this year’s field of fiction debuts.</p><p>The book follows a group of childhood friends from the town of Little Wing, Wis., as circumstances and revelations force them to navigate their changing relationships. Like all good ensembles, Butler’s cast brings together a dynamic array of characters, all of them moving in divergent directions — though yearning for roughly the same moral center — as they rewrite their adult narratives amid emotional, financial and historical turbulence.”</p><p>Butler’s self-described second novel, The Hearts of Men (2017) is “a novel about unlikely friendship and loyalty. It’s about love and heartbreak, marriage and divorce. It’s about subscribing to a code – a code of conduct, a moral code. And it’s about the Boy Scouts, baseball, and our rapidly deteriorating natural world. If you liked “Shotgun Lovesongs”, I think you will find much to enjoy about “The Hearts of Men”.”</p><p>According to Butler, “I’ll be out on the road this next year, visiting bookstores, libraries, and literary festivals. This is my opportunity to talk to readers, and to thank them for supporting my career. And, come late spring, it will be time to buckle down and finish my third novel, which has been inspired by the writings of Kent Haruf, Wendell Berry, and my old teacher, James Alan McPherson. I hope our paths will cross. But if they don’t, happy reading to you.”</p><p>Butler’s visit is made possible by the JFHML Friends Foundation. The event is open to the public, all are welcome and refreshments will be served. </p>