Mini Book Tour

Author Dale Kushner will appear in two special events in Door County for her novel, The Conditions of Love, recently released in paperback. The events are co-sponsored by The Friends of Door County Libraries, the Peninsula Bookman, and Write On, Door County.

A reading and discussion will take place on July 29, 7 pm, at the Miller Art Museum, 107 S. 4th Avenue, Sturgeon Bay. A conversation with the author takes place July 30, 7 pm, at the Peninsula Bookman, 4083 Main Street, Fish Creek. Both events are free and open to the public. Light refreshments will be served.

The Conditions of Love traces the journey of a girl from childhood to adulthood as she reckons with her parents’ abandonment, her need to break from society’s limitations, and her overwhelming desire for spiritual and erotic love. In 1953, ten-year-old Eunice lives in the backwaters of Wisconsin with her outrageously narcissistic mother, a manicureeste and movie star worshipper. Abandoned by her father as an infant, Eunice worries that she will become a misfit like her mother. Rescued from a freak storm by the shaman-like Rose, Eunice’s odyssey continues with a stay in a hermit’s shack and ends with a passionate love affair with an older man. At once fable and realistic story, The Conditions of Love is a book about emotional and physical survival.

Kushner has been honored by a Wisconsin Arts Board Grant, a Pushcart Prize nomination, and residencies at the Helene Wurlitzer Foundation, the Ragdale Foundation, and the Fetzer Institute. She is on the core faculty of the Assisi Institute and lives with her husband in Madison. The Conditions of Love is her first novel.