Laura Spence-Ash Discussion & Signing

Join us on Sunday, June 2nd for a discussion and signing with Laura Spenca-Ash about her debut novel, Beyond That, the Sea. Registration to this event is appreciated but not required.

A sweeping, tenderhearted love story, Beyond That, the Sea follows two families living on opposite sides of the Atlantic Ocean and the young woman who will call them both her own.

As German bombs fall over London in 1940, working-class parents Millie and Reginald Thompson make an impossible choice: they decide to send their eleven-year-old daughter, Beatrix, to America, where they hope she’ll stay safe.

Bea arrives in Boston to meet the Gregorys, who fold her into their world. Before long, life in America feels more natural to her than her quiet, spare world back in England. The girl she had been begins to fade away until she is called home to London when the war ends.

As she returns to London, the memory of her American family stays with her, never fully letting her go as she tries to move on, pursuing love and a life of her own.

Following Bea over time, navigating between her two worlds, Beyond That, the Sea emerges as a beautifully written, absorbing novel, full of grace and heartache, forgiveness and understanding, loss and love.

“Spence-Ash has written the novel in eight points of view, but each character is utterly three-dimensional and distinct. This debut novel captivated me from start to finish." -- Julia Quinn, author of the Bridgerton Series

“The plot of Laura Spence-Ash’s BEYOND THAT, THE SEA is rooted in the home-front upheavals of World War II, but it’s also a timeless exploration of what it means to create a family, of how dreams can die and be reborn in surprising ways.” -- The New York Times

Laura Spence-Ash’s debut novel, Beyond That, the Sea, was published by Celadon Books in March 2023. Laura’s short fiction has appeared in One Story, New England Review, Crazyhorse, and elsewhere. She was the founding editor of CRAFT, an online literary journal, and she has taught for Rutgers University, the Princeton Adult School, and One Story. She has received fellowships and support from MacDowell, the Virginia Center for Creative Arts, the Kimmel Harding Nelson Center, and Sewanee Writers’ Conference. She earned her MFA in Fiction from Rutgers-Newark, where she received the Presidential Fellowship, and she lives in New Jersey.

Host or Publisher Barnes and Noble Hamilton