Mark Greenside's I AM FINALLY, FINALLY FRENCH In-Store Event and Signing

Join us on Tuesday, October 28 at 7:00 PM when author Mark Greenside comes to the store to launch his new book I Am Finally, Finally French. Mark will be joined in conversation by freelance editor and co-founder of Mrs. Dalloway's, Marion Abbott. Mark will sign copies of his book after the presentation.

to pre-order a copy of I Am Finally, Finally French.

At 47, Mark Greenside, a glass-is-half-empty native New Yorker living in California, unwillingly went to Brittany, and to his great amazement and surprise fell in love with the place and its people. Then, because love makes you crazy and do crazy things, he borrowed money from his mom and bought a 120‑year‑old farmhouse in Plobien, a village of 500 people. Thus began Mark’s bumbling, hilarious journey adapting to life in rural France. From navigating unwritten rules about touching tomatoes at the market to hosting dinners for discerning friends, every mishap and cultural and linguistic misunderstanding—of which there were many—became a lesson in resilience, perseverance, compliance, and humility.

Now, three decades later, Mark reflects on the unforeseen joys and challenges of growing older in the place he calls home every summer. With his trademark wit and self‑awareness, he reveals how his life in Plobien—and his friends’ and neighbors’ enduring patience and kindness—have shaped him into something he never thought he’d become: truly, deeply, finally French.

Both a love letter to Brittany and a meditation on life’s unpredictability, I Am Finally, Finally French is an invitation to laugh, learn, and savor the beauty of embracing change—no matter how daunting it seems.

MARK GREENSIDE has been a civil rights activist, Vietnam War protestor, anti-draft counselor, VISTA Volunteer, union leader, and college professor. His stories have appeared in the Sun, the Literary Review, Cimarron Review, the Nebraska Review, Beloit Fiction Journal, the New Laurel Review, Crosscurrents, Five Fingers Review, and the Long Story, as well as other journals and magazines, and he is the author of a short story collection, I Saw a Man Hit His Wife; a novella, The Night At the End of the Tunnel, or Isaiah Can You See?; and two previous memoirs about life in France, I’ll Never Be French (No Matter What I Do), and (Not Quite) Mastering the Art of French Living. He resides in Alameda, CA, and Brittany, France.

After beginning her career in trade book publishing, MARION ABBOTT co-founded and co-owned Mrs. Dalloway’s (with Ann Leyhe) from 2004-2021. Her short stories, essays, and book reviews have appeared in anthologies, The San Francisco Chronicle, The Washington Post, and Lithub. She now works as a freelance editor and is writing a book about her years as an indie bookseller.

THIS EVENT is free but registration is requested. Registration ends at 6:00 pm on October 28.

BECAUSE SEATING is limited, please register only if you plan to attend.

DUE TO SPACE limitations, we may not be able to accommodate every person at an event, so early registration is encouraged.

WALK-INS will be accommodated only if space allows.

WE ASK that attendees arrive between 6:45 and 7:00 PM for the event.

PLEASE leave your non-support companion animals at home.

OUR shared restrooms are not accessible after 6:30 PM, please plan accordingly.

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