Actor and Author Marianne Leone—FIVE-DOG EPIPHANY: HOW A QUINTET OF BADASS BICHONS RETRIEVED OUR JOY—in Conversation with Ann Hood on Sep 27 at 6 PM
A new installment in best-selling author Ann Hood’s Gracie Belle imprint, actor Marianne Leone’s (The Sopranos) memoir explores how a bereaved couple and a pack of rescue dogs rediscovered joy.
Tickets are $5 and include light refreshments, an author meet and greet, authors in conversation, and a book signing.
Space is limited. PURCHASE TICKETS HERE
Books will be for sale at the event, in store, or online. A portion of the book sale proceeds will be donated to benefit The Jesse Cooper Foundation.
About the Book
In Five-Dog Epiphany, Marianne Leone writes about the joy that can be summoned after a great loss, “when you look into the eyes of another damaged creature and know that your happiness is a mirror and an echo and a prayer, and that the little soul reflecting all that energy is happy too, at last.” This memoir is a moving and sometimes surprisingly funny exploration of grief and the mutual healing that can occur between rescue dogs and people who have experienced a soul-crushing loss. Leone and her husband, actor Chris Cooper, lost their only child suddenly in 2005. Jesse was seventeen, a straight-A student, and a brilliant poet, who was also quadriplegic and nonverbal except with the assistance of a computer.
When six-year-old Jesse miraculously blurted “dog” to Santa, Goody appeared on his bed on Christmas morning. Goody was followed by Lucky, Frenchy, Titi, and Sugar, all rescues adopted after Jesse’s passing. After Jesse’s death, Leone grew a tumor the size of her premature son at birth, her husband disappeared into dark acting roles (Breach, Married Life), and Leone fainted during the filming of a scene in The Sopranos where she is standing in front of her television son’s coffin.
This is the story of a bereaved couple and a pack of rescue dogs finding their way to a new life, everyone licking their wounds, both corporal and spiritual, and the rediscovery of joy.
Praise
“Five-Dog Epiphany is a marvel—a poignant and revelatory memoir about the profound relationship between humans and their canine companions. Marianne Leone writes about grief and dogs and love and healing in a voice that’s raw and lyrical, and utterly her own.” —Tom Perrotta, author of Tracy Flick Can’t Win
“While reading this heartrending, often funny, and ultimately life-affirming memoir, I found myself thinking of the nonfiction masters Joan Didion and Patti Smith, for these are Marianne Leone’s peers. Written in lyrical, evocative prose that is as erudite as it is streetwise, this unforgettable memoir takes us unflinchingly into fathomless loss where the only lifeline may just be compassion for the suffering of other living creatures with whom we share this imperiled planet, dogs especially; Five-Dog Epiphany nourishes the soul as only genuine art can, by illuminating the simple yet elusive truth that love of all kinds holds the power to sustain and maybe even save us.” —Andre Dubus III, author of Such Kindness
About the Authors
Marianne Leone is an actor, screenwriter, and essayist. Her essays have appeared in the Boston Globe, Lit Hub, Ploughshares, Post Road, Bark Magazine, Coastal Living, Solstice, and elsewhere. She is the author of two memoirs, Jesse and Ma Speaks Up. She had a recurring role on HBO’s The Sopranos as Joanne Moltisanti, Christopher’s mother. She has also appeared in films by David O. Russell, Larry David, John Sayles, Nancy Savoca, and Martin Scorsese.
Ann Hood is the author of a dozen books of memoir and fiction, including the novels The Stolen Child, The Book That Matters Most, and The Knitting Circle, and editor of the anthologies Providence Noir, Knitting Yarns and Knitting Pearls. Hood is the imprint curator for Gracie Belle Books and lives in Providence, Rhode Island, and New York. Five-Dog Epiphany is the newest release on Gracie Belle Books.
At the Event
Books will be available for purchase at the event and in store. Or order online below.
Books by Marianne Leone
FIVE-DOG EPIPHANY Available for preorder. Pub date is Sep 3.
Books by Ann Hood