The Wilson Center, Oconomowoc's Books & Company, and Milwaukee's Boswell Book Company present a very special afternoon with Paula McLain!

The bestselling author of The Paris Wife, McLain returns to the subject of Ernest Hemingway in Love and Ruin, a novel about his passionate, stormy marriage to Martha Gellhorn, the fiercely independent, ambitious young woman who would become one of the greatest war correspondents of the twentieth century.

In 1937, 28-year-old Martha travels alone to Madrid to report on the atrocities of the Spanish Civil War and becomes drawn to the stories of ordinary people caught in devastating conflict. She also finds herself unexpectedly falling in love with Ernest Hemingway, a man already on his way to becoming a legend. In the shadow of the impending second World War, and set against the tumultuous backdrops of Madrid, Finland, China, Key West, and especially Cuba, where Martha and Ernest make their home, their relationship and professional careers ignite. But when Ernest publishes the biggest literary success of his career, For Whom the Bell Tolls, they are no longer equals, and Martha must make a choice: surrender to the confining demands of being a famous man’s wife, or risk losing Ernest by forging a path as her own woman and writer. It is a dilemma that will force her to break his heart—and her own.

Paula McLain is The New York Times bestselling author of the novels Circling the Sun, The Paris Wife, and A Ticket to Ride; the memoir Like Family: Growing Up in Other People’s Houses; and two collections of poetry. She has received fellowships from Yaddo, the MacDowell Colony, and the National Endowment for the Arts. 

Tickets are $32 and include a copy of Love and Ruin. Click below to purchase through Brown Paper Tickets; for more information, contact Boswell Books at 414-332-1181.