FARMINGTON — Melissa Coleman, author of “This Life Is in Your Hands: One Dream, Sixty Acres, and a Family Undone” will give a reading and book signing on Tuesday, April 26, at Devaney Doak & Garrett Booksellers.

“This Life Is in Your Hands” is the story of one family’s pursuit of a counterculture experiment, their resilience in the face of tragedy and the collapse of a romantic dream. Coleman’s parents were back-to-the-land pioneers who built a self-sustaining life for themselves and their young daughters on a small farm in Maine.

But their grand vision came at a price. After the accidental death of Melissa’s 3-year-old sister came the disintegration of the family and its partnership with nature.

Now a parent herself, Coleman revisits the tragic events of her childhood in order to understand and find peace with what happened. In luminous prose, she paints a keen sense of place while sifting through raw emotions with penetrating insight.

Her father, Eliot Coleman, has gone on to become one of the most revered and influential organic farmers in the country, a trailblazer in the locavore and the whole food movements.

The reading will begin at 7 p.m. at the bookstore at 193 Broadway. For more information, call 778-3454 or email info@ddgbooks.com.


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