Women of Washington Hebrew Congregation Literary Club welcomes Meg Clayton to discuss her recent novel, “Typewriter Beach” — a tale of ideas and ideals, passion and persistence, creativity, politics, and family, and two women separated by generations. In graceful prose and with an intimate understanding of human nature, Clayton captures the joys and frustrations of being a writer, being a woman, being a star, and being in love. Register for free using the form below. Once you sign up, you will receive a Zoom link in your email inbox.

RSVP

About the Book

Set in Carmel-by-the-Sea and Hollywood, “Typewriter Beach” is an unforgettable story of the unlikely friendship between an Oscar-nominated screenwriter and a young actress hoping to be Alfred Hitchcock’s new star. It’s 1957, and Isabella Giori is ten months into a standard seven-year studio contract when she auditions with Hitchcock. Just weeks later, she is sequestered by the studio’s “fixer” in a tiny Carmel cottage, waiting and dreading. Meanwhile, next door, Léon Chazan is annoyed when Iz interrupts his work on yet another screenplay he won’t be able to sell, because he’s been blacklisted. Soon, they’re together in his roadster, speeding down the fog-shrouded Big Sur coast.

Now to 2018. Twenty-six-year-old screenwriter Gemma Chazan, in Carmel to sell her grandfather’s cottage, finds a hidden safe full of secrets—raising questions about who the screenwriter known simply as Chazan really was, and whether she can live up to his name.

About the Author

New York Times bestseller and book club favorite Meg Waite Clayton is the author of nine novels, most recently the instant USA Today bestseller “Typewriter Beach” and the international bestsellers “The Postmistress of Paris” and “The Last Train to London.” Her books have been featured on Good Morning America and the New York Times Book Review Editors’ Choice list, and in People and other newspapers and magazines all over the world. They have been IndieNext, Library Reads, LoanStars librarians, USA Today, Book of the Month Club, Costco and Target Book Club, and Amazon Editors’ picks, as well as finalists for the National Jewish Book Award, the Langum Prize, and Barbara Kingsolver’s Bellwether Prize for Socially Engaged Fiction. Her ‘The Wednesday Sisters” is one of Entertainment Weekly’s 25 Essential Best Friend Novels of all time. Clayton’s books have been published in 24 languages. Her screenplay for “The Last Train to London” was chosen for the Meryl Streep- and Nicole Kidman-sponsored The Writers Lab.

Meg’s novels draw on the history of real women facing the kinds of challenges women face, and women defying the odds to make differences, large and small, in the world. Inspirations include Mary Jayne Gold, Truus Wijsmuller, Beatrix Potter, Martha Gellhorn, and other journalists and photographers, and the women of Hollywood past and present. 

Meg also writes for major newspapers, magazines, and public radio, mentors in the OpEd Project, and is a member of the National Book Critics Circle, PEN, and the California bar. She divides her time between California and Connecticut.

Every year, we are pleased to present prominent writers of the nation’s newest works on topics of Jewish interest, often in cooperation with the Jewish Book Council. For more information, click here.