Marblehead author debuts new novel, might be headed to Animal Planet

MARBLEHEAD – She’s a best-selling author, she received a prestigious Italian award for women’s fiction and her next stop could be Animal Planet.Marblehead native Brunonia Barry, author of the best-selling novel “The Lace Reader” and a new companion novel “The Map of True Places,” told a fascinated hometown audience at the Abbot Public Library Wednesday evening that she could be headed for an appearance on the cable network Animal Planet alongside Dusty, Salem’s House of Seven Gables cat.Much of Barry’s new novel was written in the garden of the House of Seven Gables, an important part of the story line, and Dusty, who keeps close watch on the national landmark, sat beside Barry when she wrote and found his way into the novel.It’s still in the talking stages, as is the possibility that “The Lace Reader” will be filmed next year in Salem, giving local fans a chance to appear as extras.What’s definite is the applause Barry’s audience gave her after three readings from “The Map of True Places,” which as Spirit of ’76 manager Hilary Lay pointed out, made its national debut Tuesday evening with a party at the House of Seven Gables. Noting that she had a chance to read the book in manuscript six months ago, Lay said the story “exceeded my expectations.”The book concerns Zee Finch, a Boston psychotherapist who tries to help her Hawthorne scholar father deal with Parkinson’s Disease as she deals with the suicide of a patient. It deals with celestial navigation and the House of Seven Gables, and the title refers to a Herman Melville quote from “Moby Dick.” “It is not down in any map; true places never are.”The idea of failed maps is one that Barry thinks can resonate with many people in a post-9/11 world.”When our maps fail us, we either adjust our course or tear the map up and start again,” she said. “We all can take wrong turns but it seems now that our maps are failing us left and right.”Her sense of humor, however, hasn’t failed her. She told an anecdote she uses to explain Salem’s mix of history and commerce to people in other states and countries.Her New York City publicist came to Salem one day and received a coupon for an Italian ice from an actor in a full Italian ice costume. As he ate the ice he heard screams and saw Gordon College students re-enacting part of the trial of Bridget Bishop, the first woman hanged as a witch in 1692.The students exhorted the tourists in the walking mall to help them bring Bridget to justice at a nearby performance. It was hot and no one wanted to go. At last they got a volunteer: the actor dressed as the Italian ice. Bridget Bishop was dragged to her doom that day by an Italian ice.