NEW! Staff Picks Book Group

Monday, May 6th @ 6 p.m.

Join our newest book discussion group! Each month a different staff member will be picking the book and leading the discussion. The Staff Picks Book Group meets on the first Monday of the month at 6 p.m. in the library.

About May's pick:

Rebecca
by Daphne Du Maurier

Reference Assistant Emily will be hosting May's meeting.

"Last night, I dreamt I went to Manderley again."

With these words, the reader is ushered into an isolated gray stone mansion on the windswept Cornish Coast, as the second Mrs. Maxim de Winter recalls the chilling events that transpired as she began her new life as the young bride of a husband she barely knew. For in every corner of every room were phantoms of a time dead but not forgotten – a past devotedly preserved by the sinister housekeeper, Mrs. Davers: a suite immaculate and untouched, clothing laid out and ready to be worn, but not by any of the great house’s occupants. With an eerie presentiment of evil tightening her heart, the second Mrs. De Winter walked in the shadow of her mysterious predecessor, determined to uncover the darkest secrets and shattering truths about Maxim’s first wife – the late and hauntingly beautiful Rebecca.

“The relentlessness of a vivid nightmare.” –Boston Herald

Rebecca is a 1938 Gothic novel written by English author Daphne du Maurier. The novel depicts a young woman who impetuously marries a wealthy widower, before discovering that both he and his household are haunted by the memory of his late first wife, Rebecca.

A bestseller which has never gone out of print, Rebecca sold 2.8 million copies between its publication in 1938 and 1965. It has been adapted numerous times for stage and screen, including a 1939 play by du Maurier herself, the film Rebecca (1940), directed by Alfred Hitchcock, which won the Academy Award for Best Picture, and the 2020 remake directed by Ben Wheatley for Netflix. The story is also a successful musical production.

If you'd like to join the Staff Picks Book Group, please contact the Reference Desk at askreference@coventrylibrary.org or 822-9105.