Author talk with Virginia Pye on Marriage and Other Monuments

Join local award-winning author Virginia Pye in a reading of her new novel: , released on February 10, 2026.

An ode to the city of Richmond, Virginia, her family’s home for many years, the novel is set during the summer of 2020, already a pivotal time in American history. As social justice protests and the removal of Confederate monuments rock Richmond, the marriages of two estranged sisters implode, eventually bringing them closer, while their husbands conspire in a racial reckoning their ancestors would never have dreamed of. The story was also inspired by what it takes to have a successful multi-decade marriage, like the author’s own, which she says has been built on a foundation of compromise that encourages evolution, both individually and as a couple.

Copies of the book will be for sale by Trident Booksellers.

Early Praise!

“Marriage and Other Monuments is a riveting contemporary narrative that intertwines suspenseful family drama, powerful themes of social justice, and a plot ripped soulfully from the headlines. Pye tells a story of race, marriage, and politics ideal for book club discussions and sure to satisfy readers of every stripe.” —Bruce Holsinger, Culpability, Oprah Book Club pick

”The personal is political in this smart, engaging novel as the sisters‘ marriages become entangled with new allegiances and both couples are forced to examine what truly matters for all time.“ —Alice Elliott Dark, Fellowship Point

“Superb. With startling command of craft, Virginia Pye delivers a novel in which small triumphs of art and in life become the abiding monuments, as love, and the failures of love, eclipse politics.“ —Alice Randall, Black Bottom Saints and The Wind Done Gone

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Host or Publisher First Church Boston