Book of the Week #5

Mutual Aid by Ruth Doan MacDougall (Concord, NH: Plaidswede Press, 2009)

New Hampshire native Ruth Doan MacDougall received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the New Hampshire Writer's Project in 2005 and she continues to achieve. Her latest book -- which is her 15th including those she wrote with her father Daniel Doan -- is set in the fictional town of Chiswick, NH.

"Ruth is a New Hampshire treasure. We're honored to publish Mutual Aid," said publisher George Geers. "With her longstanding reputation as a writer and her unique take on new England themes, we think her fiction is a perfect fit for Plaidswede."

Ms. MacDougall will be reading from this novel at Gibson's on Saturday, 2/6/10 at 11am.

"As its heroine, Mercy Blodgett, says of herself, she seems to be related to almost everybody in the small town of Chiswick, NH. To those she isn’t, her husband, Bob, is likely to be. Just when a mill closing in 1986 costs the Blodgetts their jobs, this town is suddenly terrorized by an arsonist, and heart attacks may cost Bob his life.

The title refers to the emergency system in which fire departments from neighboring towns assist each other, but it also emphasizes the interdependence of all people,whether they are family, friends, or, as with Mercy and the young man who has become her pen pal, strangers at the outset. The word "aid" summons up the word "AIDS," and this too is part of the story." (jacket copy)