Author Talk: Ghosts of Fourth Street with Laurie Hertzel

Join us for a reading and conversation with Laurie Hertzel, longtime books editor of the Star Tribune, about her new book Ghosts of Fourth Street.
Every family has its stories and secrets. Laurie Hertzel’s family had more than its share.
Laurie, the longtime books editor for the Star Tribune, grew up in a big, complicated family in Duluth. Her life was shattered when her oldest sibling, eighteen-year-old Bobby, died suddenly when she was just nine years old. Moving back and forth in time, Laurie reflects on Bobby’s death and what happens to a family’s story when no one can talk about a tragedy and its toll.
As Laurie shares her experiences, we see the emergence of her fascination with story and truth as she teaches herself to read and finds solace and inspiration in books amid the tensions and competing agendas within her family. With keen attention, candor, and grace, Laurie paints a vivid portrait of 1960s Duluth as she poignantly examines a family contending with grief and the fact that life steadily goes on—snow and school buses, Christmases and Thanksgivings, ice skating and tobogganing and climbing trees, with ghosts always lingering at the edges.