BRUNSWICK

Maine author Deborah Gould will launch her new novel, “The Eastern: The Early Years,” with a reading and book signing 6-8 p.m. Tuesday, July 28, at the Brunswick Inn on Park Row. A chapter of the book won the 2014 Maine Literary Award for Short Fiction.

The first of a two-volume work, “The Eastern: The Early Years” is based on the lives of five families who settled along the Eastern River in East Pittston in the nineteenth century. The novel spans 45 years of social change, from 1820 to the end of the Civil War in 1865.

“The characters in this novel were real people who established an agricultural community that lasted well into the twentieth century,” said Gould. “Only a few of those farmhouses are still there today, though.”

Gould bought and lived in one of those farmhouses in the 1990s.

“I’ve researched every house I’ve ever owned, and the history of this particular house brought me to Joel Thompson and his family,” she said. “From there, I followed the deeds to the neighboring farms. Before long, I had an entire community.”

Using town records, census information, probate files and social notes from old area newspapers, Gould established a factual framework of families and events and then developed them into the novel.

“All those public records gave me the bones of the novel,” Gould said. “And living in the area gave me a deep sense of the place-the land, the Eastern and Kennebec river valleys, the neighborhood. But after that, I was on my own.”

Both fiction and social history, The Eastern explores the themes of community and reciprocity in a 19th-century agricultural neighborhood.

“We’ve lost those old social constructs,” Gould said. “We’ve lost that sense of community of working together for the common good; The Eastern is my way of bringing those values back again.”

The Brunswick Inn is located in downtown Brunswick on the town mall. The celebration runs from 6-8 p.m. and there will be appetizers and a cash bar.

Maine Authors Publishing works with independent authors to get their books published and in the hands of readers. Their goal is to offer authors affordable local printing and marketing solutions. The Eastern will be available from your local bookstore and from www.maineauthorspublishing.com.