AUBURN — Debra Spark, author of five books of fiction, will share her newest novel, “Unknown Caller,” at 3 p.m. Thursday, Dec. 1, at the Auburn Public Library.

The novel tells the story of a failed marriage and its complicated aftermath. For as long as Daniella has been married to Joel, they’ve received phone calls at odd hours, and late at night. Daniella knows the caller as Liesel, Joel’s first wife, a woman whose sudden departure devastated her husband.

After years of disruptive, long-distance phone calls, Liesel rings to tell Joel she’s letting Idzia, the 17-year-old daughter he has never met, visit for the summer. Daniella and Joel prepare for Idzia’s arrival, but when Joel goes to pick her up from the airport, Idzia isn’t there.

Spark’s short work has appeared in Agni, the Boston Globe, the Cincinnati Review, the Chicago Tribune, the New York Times, the Washington Post and Yankee, among other places.

She has been the recipient of several awards, including a National Endowment for the Arts fellowship.

A graduate of Yale University and the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, she is a professor at Colby College in Waterville and teaches in the Masters of Fine Arts Program for Writers at Warren Wilson College in Asheville, North Carolina.

She lives with her husband and son in North Yarmouth.


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