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Ashe County Literature Festival Author Spotlight – Diane Chamberlain Featured on September 21

Diane Chamberlain

By Colby Gable

On September 17th, the Ashe Country Literature Festival will be featuring a number of prominent authors performing readings and lectures, as well as free workshops available to the public via pre-registration. One of these featured authors includes New York Times Bestselling Author, Diane Chamberlain, who has had twenty-six books published in over twenty different languages. In a variety of these works, including her last three, she chose to utilize North Carolina’s diverse environment either as the primary location where the story is to take place such as The Stolen Marriage, or a secondary location apart from the main setting which holds significant value in some way, as in Pretending to Dance.

Her latest, The Dream Daughter, incorporates themes of magical realism with staunch elements of mystery, conspiracy, and suspense. The book was released in 2018 and begins taking place in 1960’s Chapel Hill, North Carolina, although the novel itself extends to an array of places within the state, primarily the Outer Banks. It follows the story of a young widowed mother who lost her husband to the Vietnam War, and shortly after is forced to deal with her child’s critical medical problems through unconventional methods.

Praise for The Dream Daughter:

“Chamberlain stretches her sense of familial relationships and toe-curling suspense in new directions, weaving in elements of trust, history and time as she explores the things we do for love. ..The Dream Daughter will delight Chamberlain’s fans and hook new readers.”
—Booklist

“In her first foray into speculative fiction, this story remains pure Diane Chamberlain, with complex characters, dynamic relationships, and impossible choices. After dozens of novels in the literary genre, Chamberlain ventured a bit further into historical fiction, which worked out really well for her. Now tossing in a bit of fantasy / sci-fi proves her versatility.”
— Lael Braday

Chamberlain is scheduled to speak at the festival on Saturday, September 21st, at 11:00 AM, for a reading and discussion on The Dream Daughter, as well as previewing her next piece, Big Lies in a Small Town, set in Edenton, North Carolina.