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Ben Shattuck with “The History of Sound” at The Music Hall Lounge

The Music Hall Lounge
131 Congress St.
Portsmouth, NH 03801
Date: Thursday Jul 24, 7:00 p.m.
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Website: https://themusichall.my.salesforce-sites.com/ticket/#/events/a0STS00000LtT3i2AF
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TICKETS
Member Presale: Now
Public On Sale: Wed., 3/19 at 12pm

$33, includes a signed book (“The History of Sound,” $18, paperback)

https://www.themusichall.org/events/benshattuck/

“Exquisitely crafted, deeply imagined, exhilaratingly diverse, The History of Sound places Ben Shattuck firmly among the very finest of our storytellers.” —Geraldine Brooks, New York Times bestselling author of Horse

In twelve luminous stories set across three centuries, The History of Sound examines the unexpected ways the past returns to us and how love and loss are entwined and transformed over generations. In Ben Shattuck’s ingenious collection, each story has a companion story, which contains a revelation about the previous, paired story. Mysteries and murders are revealed, history is refracted, and deep emotional connections are woven through characters and families.

Shattuck’s inventive, exquisite stories transport readers from 1700s Nantucket to the contemporary woods of New Hampshire and beyond—into landscapes both enduring and unmistakably modern. Memories, artifacts, paintings, and journals resurface in surprising and poignant ways among evocative beaches, forests, and orchards, revealing the secrets, misunderstandings, and love that linger across centuries.

Written with breathtaking humanity and humor, The History of Sound is a love letter to New England, a radiant conversation between past and present, and a moving meditation on the abiding search for home.

The History of Sound is coming soon as a film starring Paul Mescal (Normal People) and Josh O’Connor (Challengers), directed by Oliver Hermanus (Living), and Ben Shattuck wrote the screenplay. The movie will premiere at festivals in 2025.

Ben Shattuck is the author of Six Walks: In the Footsteps of Henry David Thoreau, which was a New Yorker Best Book of 2022, a Wall Street Journal Best Book of Spring, a New York Times Best Book of Summer, and more. He is the winner of the PEN/Robert J. Dau Short Story Prize and a Pushcart Prize. He lives with his wife and daughter on the coast of Massachusetts, where he owns and runs the oldest general store in America, built in 1793.

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Special thanks to our Literary at The Lounge Presenting Sponsor, the University of New Hampshire and our Media Partner, New Hampshire Public Radio.