Shelf Life
A tale of terror
On Aug. 31, 1979, John Busby, a Falmouth policeman, was driving to work when a car pulled up alongside his, and shotgun blasts tore through him. He survived the ambush, but his face was shattered. His family was placed under 24-hour armed guard. Fearful that the shooter would return, Busby, his wife, and their three children moved out of town.
Twenty-nine years later, the crime remains unsolved. Recently, Busby returned to Falmouth for the first time since he fled. Hundreds of townspeople showed up to hear him and his daughter, Cylin, who was 9 at the time of the shooting, talk about their new book, "The Year We Disappeared: A Father-Daughter Memoir" (Bloomsbury).
Despite multiple surgeries, John Busby speaks with difficulty. Writing the memoir with his daughter allowed him to express his anger at the crime, the Police Department's failure to make an arrest in the case, and the upheaval his family endured. Busby has long suspected that the shooter was a local man who was known as a bully and worse. In 2003, that man's brother confessed that he drove the car on the night Busby was shot and implicated his brother in the shooting. Yet, the confession came too late. The statute of limitations had expired. Busby is fighting to change that law.
Covey of authors
Now in its 16th year, the Concord Festival of Authors is branching out with music from Jane Austen and Bloody Marys on Halloween.
Pianist Elizabeth Morgan will perform pieces from Jane Austen's music collection and discuss the role of the piano in Austen's novels. Bloody Marys will be served along with a bite to eat at a talk by Leslie S. Klinger, editor of "The New Annotated Dracula." More than 50 writers will appear at events in Concord and Lowell on Oct. 15 through Nov. 2. Details at www.concordfestival ofauthors.com.
Still the best
In 1915, Edward J. O'Brien, a young Harvard graduate, launched "The Best American Short Stories" as an annual collection. How the idea has grown. In addition to the original series, Houghton Mifflin this week will publish more than a half-dozen "Best American" collections.
New England writers show up en masse in the new "Best American Essays." There is Dr. Atul Gawande on aging, John Updike on dinosaurs, psychologist Lauren Slater on the trauma of summer camp, former US poet laureate Charles Simic on his roots in the former Yugoslavia, and Rich Low on Adolf Hitler's mustache.
In "Best American Comics," Vermont is an up-and-comer. Joining Alison Bechdel are two fellow Vermonters, Joseph Lambert and Jason Lutes. All three have ties to a new school, the Center for Cartoon Studies, in White River Junction.
Coming out
Pick of the week
Annie Philbrick of Bank Square Books in Mystic, Conn., recommends "The Blue Cotton Gown: A Midwife's Memoir," by Patricia Harman (Beacon): "Here is an intimate account of a woman, both her career as a midwife and her life as the wife of a doctor in West Virginia. Her patients' lives are stories of hope and loss; her marriage is a story of love and faith accompanied by debt and tension. Well-written and heartfelt."
Jan Gardner can be reached at JanLGardner@yahoo.com. 