1--What is the title of your latest release?
THE MARTHA’S VINEYARD BEACH AND BOOK CLUB
2--What’s the “elevator pitch” for your new book?
Two sisters get through WWII on Martha’s Vineyard by starting a book club.
3--How did you decide where your book was going to take place?
I was inspired by my mother’s family, the Smiths, who settled on Martha’s Vineyard in 1891.
4--Would you hang out with your protagonist in real life?
For sure! One of the sisters, Cadence, is inspired by my book loving mother, so I’d love to hang out with her!
5--What are three words that describe your protagonist?
Cadence is willful, bookish and beautiful.
Briar is obsessive, brilliant and loyal.
6--What’s something you learned while writing this book?
The waters surrounding Cape Cod and the Islands were loaded with Nazi submarines.
7--Do you edit as you draft or wait until you are totally done?
Both!
8--What’s your favorite foodie indulgence?
Fritos
9--Describe your writing space/office!
It overlooks the hayfields on our property.
10--Who is an author you admire?
Margaret Atwood
11--Is there a book that changed your life?
Cider House Rules made me want to write a novel.
12--Tell us about when you got “the call.” (when you found out your book was going to be published)/Or, for indie authors, when you decided to self-publish.
My agent called me on a Monday morning while I was in my bathrobe watching the Today Show. I still can’t believe it.
13--What’s your favorite genre to read?
Right now it’s memoir.
14--What’s your favorite movie?
Cider House Rules. With Pride and Prejudice and Best in Show a close second and third.
15--What is your favorite season?
Spring. It seems like anything is possible.
16--How do you like to celebrate your birthday?
With my husband and three adult children and their spouses/significant others at a wonderful restaurant with games at home after.
17--What’s a recent tv show/movie/book/podcast you highly recommend?
Slow Horses. Drops of God.
18--What’s your favorite type of cuisine?
Sushi
19--What do you do when you have free time?
Read, walk, thrifting
20--What can readers expect from you next?
Another Martha’s Vineyard book—this time the 70s.
Two sisters living on Martha's Vineyard during World War II find hope in the power of storytelling when they start a wartime book club for women—a spectacular novel inspired by true events from the New York Times bestselling author of Lilac Girls.
2016: Thirty-four-year-old Mari Starwood is still grieving as she travels to the storied island of Martha’s Vineyard, off the coast of Massachusetts. She’s come all the way from California with nothing but a name on a piece of paper: Elizabeth Deveraux, the famous but reclusive Vineyard painter. When Mari makes it to Mrs. Devereaux’s stunning waterfront farm under the guise of taking a painting class with her, Mrs. Deveraux begins to tell her the story of the Smith sisters, who once lived there. As the tale unfolds, Mari is shocked to learn that her relationship to this island runs deeper than she ever thought possible.
1942: The Smith girls—nineteen-year-old, wannabe writer Cadence and sixteen-year-old, war-obsessed Briar—are faced with the impossible task of holding their failing family farm together during World War II as the U.S. Army arrives on Martha’s Vineyard. When Briar spots German U-boats lurking off the island’s shores, and Cadence falls into an unlikely romance with a sworn enemy, their quiet lives are officially upended. In an attempt at normalcy, Cadence and her best friend Bess start a book club, which grows in both number and influence as they connect with a fabulous New York publisher who could make all of Cadence’s dreams come true. But all that is put at risk by a mysterious man who washes ashore—and whispers of a spy in their midst. Who in their tight-knit island community can they trust? Could this little book club change the course of the war… before it’s too late?
Women's Fiction Time Slip | Women's Fiction Historical [Ballantine Books, On Sale: May 27, 2025, Hardcover / e-Book , ISBN: 9780593354919 / eISBN: 9780593354926]
MARTHA HALL KELLY is a native New Englander, now transplanted in Atlanta, Georgia, where she spends her days filling legal pads with stories and reading WWII books.
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