Events at this location

Join The Hickory Stick Bookshop for a day full of fun and games to celebrate 11th Annual Independent Bookstore Day on April 27th along with hundreds of other independent bookstores across the country – including all 21 stores on the CT Book Trail!

In addition, join the Connecticut Bookstore Passport Program where participants are eligible to win over $4,000 in prizes. Learn more

The Hickory Stick Bookshop is delighted to host Connecticut author Brendan Flaherty who will be here to sign copies of his new book “The Dredge” on Saturday May 4th at 3 pm. This event is free and open to the public. If you are unable to attend this event, you may reserve signed copies of “The Dredge” by calling The Hickory Stick Bookshop at (860) 868 0525, or shop our website 24/7 at hickorystickbookshop.com.

In Flaherty’s debut novel, two estranged brothers must confront the violence of the past when they find out a pond where they played as children will be dredged.
After some traumatic teenaged years in rural Connecticut, Cale and Ambrose Casey had nothing left to say to each other. Cale ran off to Hawaii to sell luxury real estate. Ambrose stayed behind and built up his construction company. Neither thought they’d be in touch again and were glad for it–until they learned of a real estate developer’s plan to drain and expand Gibbs Pond.

Nearly 30 years before, the Casey brothers buried a secret in that pond, which fell somewhere between self-defense and family preservation.
Lily Rowe, the contractor in charge of the dredging, can also trace her roots–and her trauma–to the banks of Gibbs Pond. After a childhood that saw her and her brother yanked across the country by her abusive father, it was here where she finally stayed put, even if they didn’t. But as ambitious as Lily is, and as much as she wants answers of her own, her family also has secrets to protect. Now, the haunted lives of Cale, Ambrose, and Lily collide once more as they reunite to unearth the devastation of the past.

About the Author: Connecticut’s 6th or 7th best writer since Mark Twain. Brendan Flaherty is from outside Hartford. He went to Washington University in St. Louis and received his MFA from Boston University. He lives with his wife and two sons. “The Dredge” is his debut novel.

“’The Dredge’ probes the conventional American myth: the past can be reformed and even suppressed so that one can turn a new page in the American Eden and become a new Adam or Eve. The intense story dramatizes how the past always shapes and determines the main characters’ quotidian existence and mental activities. An ambitious, splendid debut.”– Ha Jin, National Book Award winning author of Waiting

“Flaherty writes with stealthy acuity, his prose seemingly simple yet full of coiled power. Multiple hauntings emerge in ‘The Dredge, ‘ and you’ll be contemplating them after the last page.”–Sarah Weinman, The New York Times

“Two brothers with a secret and a woman with a job to do (and traumas of her own to reckon with) converge at the site of a Connecticut pond scheduled to be dredged, in this powerful new novel. Flaherty deftly conjures up an atmosphere of dread and suspense, with all roads leading to the pond, and all concerns pointing toward what lies at its bottom. This is an assured, compulsively readable debut.”–Dwyer Murphy, CrimeReads

Author photograph – Luke Wayne Photography