Robert Perreault - Courtship in Purgatory: A Novel. Joined by Becky Rule!

Name: Robert Perreault - Courtship in Purgatory: A Novel. Joined by Becky Rule!
Start: 2025-11-13T17:30:00-05:00
Location: Gibson's Bookstore

Schedule

Thu, 13 Nov, 2025 at 05:30 pm

UTC-05:00

Location

Gibson's Bookstore | Concord, NH

NH author Robert Perreault returns to Gibson's Bookstore with his first novel in English, Courtship in Purgatory, an intimate look at the difficulties faced by two middle-aged lovers. Bound by tradition, torn by love, Courtship in Purgatory is a sincere look back at family and Franco-American traditional attitudes and constraints following World War II. Perreault will be joined in-conversation by NH author Rebecca (Becky) Rule!
Set in the conservative French-speaking community of Sagamore Falls, a fictional New Hampshire mill town, Courtship in Purgatory portrays parental control over middle-aged offspring in an upper-middle-class family. When protagonist Victoria discovers a disturbing entry in her deceased father's journal, she relives a painful episode dating back a quarter-century, from which she had healed. At 33, Victoria lived a sheltered existence with her parents. Although she adored them, especially her father--she worshipped the water he walked on--she hoped to marry Lucien, whose working-class status did not measure up to her parents' standards. Consequently, her father separated the lovers via a secret plot that threatened to smear Lucien's image in Victoria's eyes. Caught between the two men she loved, she wondered: Should she follow her conscience by obeying her father? Or should she follow her heart without knowing if Lucien was the morally upstanding man he appeared to be?
About the author: Robert B Perreault is a bilingual writer of books and articles about the New England Franco-American experience and the history of his hometown, Manchester, New Hampshire. He holds a BA in Sociology from Saint Anselm College (1972), including a year of study in Paris; an MA in French/New England Franco-American Studies from Rhode Island College (1981); and an MFA in Creative Writing (Fiction/Nonfiction) from Southern New Hampshire University (2008). His French-language novel is L’Héritage (1983), and its setting is Manchester’s Franco-American community. Since 1988, he has conducted conversational French sessions in the Native Speaker Program at Saint Anselm College. The Manchester Historic Association honored him with a Historic Preservation Award (1994) and Manchester’s Franco-American Centre proclaimed him Franco-American of the Year (2012). Courtship in Purgatory is his first novel in English.
Can't make this event? Order the book through the Gibson's Bookstore website and we'll have it signed for you at the event! Put your signing/personalization requests in the order comments at checkout.