CAMDEN — The Camden Public Library presents Maine author Kay Tobler Liss in conversation with Joseph Coté, Thursday, Feb. 1, at 6:30 p.m., in the Picker Room and on Zoom, to discuss and read excerpts from Liss’s new novel, Coming Home. A book signing will follow. Local thespian Joseph Coté is the reader of Camden Public Library’s weekly “Friday Explorations Read Aloud” program on the library’s YouTube channel and Facebook page.

This is a hybrid program and will take place in the Picker Room as well as on Zoom. To find the Zoom link to attend virtually, visit librarycamden.org, or visit https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_DYXrHlYNQoeS_wu1qXSl9w)

Coming Home follows four generations of a family who return to cherished places in nature from their youth and uncover buried secrets about themselves. From the coast of North Carolina to New York, from Savannah, Georgia to Switzerland, the special places include a meadow, a pine grove, a river, and mountain valley. Their journeys begin after a Christmas dinner and end a year later when they gather again to share their stories and start to heal as a family. They finally face a pivotal event — the death of a sibling and son. The most valuable lesson they learn is that nature can not only be a source of beauty and solace but of personal transformation and expanding compassion for all life.

Kay Tobler Liss’s greatest passion is for the natural world. She began writing poetry while out in the woods where she grew up on Long Island, New York. She won a prize for her poetry at 17 and went on to study literature at Bard College and Environmental Studies at Southampton College. Liss wrote for newspapers and magazines for many years, and also taught literature on the high school and college level. Her first novel, The Last Resort, published in July 2020, combined both her passion for nature and for social justice. Her new novel, Coming Home, deals with how nature can not only save us as individuals but help us find common ground with other people and all living things.