Tuesday, November 17, 2026 · 7:00 PM – 8:00 PM
Harvard Book Store — 1256 Massachusetts Ave., Cambridge, MA
Harvard Book Store welcomes Janet Rich Edwards —professor of epidemiology at Harvard University who works in the Division of Women’s Health at Brigham and Women’s Hospital—for a discussion of her national bestselling debut novel, Canticle, newly available in paperback in November 2026. About Canticle NATIONAL BESTSELLER * LONGLISTED FOR THE 2026 CAROL SHIELDS PRIZE FOR FICTION * NEW YORK TIMES EDITORS’ CHOICE * REAL SIMPLE BEST BOOKS OF 2025 * SPOTIFY BEST DEBUTS OF 2025 * GOODREADS READERS’ MOST ANTICIPATED BOOKS OF FALL A masterful debut novel following a spirited young woman’s explorations of faith, agency, and love in thirteenth-century Bruges. Aleys is sixteen years old and unusual: stubborn, bright, and prone to religious visions. She and her only friend, Finn, a young scholar, have been learning Latin together in secret—but just as she thinks their connection might become something more, everything unravels. When her father promises her in marriage to a merchant she doesn’t love, she runs away from home, finding shelter among the beguines, a fiercely independent community of religious women who refuse to answer to the Church. Among these hardworking and strong-willed…