Title Selected For Fairfield's 2025 'One Book One Town' Initiative

FAIRFIELD, CT — Beautyland: A Novel has been named Fairfield's One Book One Town selection for 2025, Fairfield Public Library announced Monday.

The book by Marie-Helene Bertino is the third novel by the American novelist, and it introduces a gentle, unforgettable alien for our times: Adina Giorno, a baby of unusual perception born to a single mother in Philadelphia.

As a child, Adina recognizes that she is different—she possesses knowledge of a faraway planet, with which she communicates by fax machine, reporting on the oddities of Earthlings to her extraterrestrial relatives. For years, as she moves through the world and makes a life for herself among humans, she dispatches transmissions on the terrors and surprising joys of their existence, while never feeling quite at home. Then, at a precarious moment, a beloved friend urges Adina to share her messages with the world. Is there a chance she is not alone?

"Beautyland rose to the top for the Selection Committee because its characters and their experiences were so relatable," said One Book One Town co-chair Jennifer Laseman, Head of Teen Services at the library, in a statement. "Readers felt a bond with Adina, her friends and her life... That feeling of not fitting in, of feeling alien, is an experience so many of us connect with on a visceral level."

Co-chair Philip Bahr, Head of Adult Services at Fairfield Public Library, added "The character of Adina views the human experience as an outsider and in turn allows the reader to interpret her identity in several ways. We hope that Beautyland sparks lots of conversation in advance of the author’s visit in March."

The One Book One Town selection for 2024 was Warrior Girl Unearthed by Angeline Boulley, and for 2023, the selection was I Keep Trying to Catch His Eye by Ivan Maisel.

From the announcement:

Beautyland was published in January of 2024 and has been named one of Time Magazine’s Best Books of the Year, one of the New York Times 100 Notable Books of 2024, and one of the Best Books of the Year by the Boston Globe and The Guardian. Marie-Helene Bertino, herself a native of Philadelphia, is the author of two previous books, 2 AM at the Cat’s Pajamas and Parakeet, which was long-listed for the 2021 Carnegie Medal and the Joyce Carol Oates Prize. Her short story collection, Safe as Houses, won the Iowa Short Fiction Award in 2012.

A companion book to Beautyland for middle-grade readers has been chosen by Teen Librarian Laseman.

Good Different by Meg Eden Kuyatt (2023) is an extraordinary novel-in-verse about a neurodivergent girl who comes to understand and celebrate her difference. Thirteen-year-old Selah knows the rules for being “normal,” and always, always sticks to them, until the day she explodes at school and hits another student. Selah has to figure out more about who she is and come to understand that different doesn’t mean damaged, and try to get her school to understand that as well, before it’s too late.

The One Book One Town initiative was inspired by a program created by librarian and author Nancy Pearl of the Seattle Public Library’s Washington Center for the Book, who wondered what would happen if everyone in the city read the same book simultaneously. Fairfield’s own community reading initiative— One Book One Town—began in 2008. Each year starting in summer the OBOT Reading Committee--comprised of librarians from Fairfield Public Library and representatives from many of our community partners--starts the process of reading and reviewing books in search of the next year’s selection. This year’s OBOT partners include Experience Fairfield, Fairfield Museum & History Center, Fairfield Public Library, Fairfield Public Schools, Fairfield University, Fairfield University Store, Friends of Fairfield Public Library, the Pequot Library, Sacred Heart University, and the SHU Community Theater.

Copies of Beautyland: A Novel and its companion book, Good Different, are available to borrow in print, e-book and digital audiobook at either location of Fairfield Public Library and at Pequot Library, or for purchase at local bookstores. Author Marie-Helene Bertino will speak at the SHU Community Theater on Wednesday, March 5, at 7:00pm. Registration for this event opens on Monday, February 3, at 9:00am; please visit our website at https://fplct.librarymarket.com/events/month/2025/02 to register.

One Book One Town and its attendant programs are made possible by the generous support of The
Friends of Fairfield Public Library.