Fairfield Library Announces 2022 One Book One Town Selection

FAIRFIELD, CT — The Fairfield Public Library and its community partners have announced the One Book One Town selection for 2022: "The House in the Cerulean Sea" by award-winning, bestselling author TJ Klune.

The contemporary fantasy is the story of Linus Baker, a caseworker who is sent to the isolated Marsyas Island Orphanage to report on its charges, children who’ve been both blessed and cursed by their magical powers. Linus has never seen anything like these children or their mysterious caretaker, Arthur Parnassus. As he learns more about their lives and their struggle to be accepted by the outside world, Linus finds his own life changing while the reader is treated to a joyous journey of discovery.

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 began in 2008, and every year since a committee of members from the Fairfield Public Library, the Pequot Library, Fairfield University, Fairfield University Bookstore, and the Fairfield Public Schools has met to select that year’s book.

Klune is the author of numerous novels, including "The Extraordinaires," "Under the Whispering Door," and "Into This River I Drown," for which he won a Lambda Literary Award. "The House in the Cerulean Sea" is his latest work and it has received a 2021 Alex Award and a 2021 RUSA Reading List Fantasy Winner, and it was one of Publisher’s Weekly's “Most Anticipated Books” in spring 2020.

Klune will be speaking about his book 7 p.m. March 1 at SHU’s Community Theater; registration for the event opens Feb. 1. In addition, the library will offer book discussions and other related programming, including the annual One Book One Town writing contest. For details, visit fairfieldpubliclibrary.org/obot.

Copies of "The House in the Cerulean Sea" are available digitally and in print at either location of Fairfield Public Library and at Pequot Library, or for purchase at the Fairfield University Bookstore. One Book One Town and its attendant programs are made possible through the sponsorship of The Friends of the Fairfield Public Library.

All programs at the Fairfield Public Library are free. To register, or for more information, visit fairfieldpubliclibrary.org or call 203-256-3160.