This week Greenwich Library announced that the short story collection The History of Sound by Ben Shattuck has been named the Greenwich Reads Together book selection for 2025.
Mr. Shattuck will speak in the Berkley Theater at Greenwich Library on Tuesday, October 28 at 7:00pm. Greenwich Reads Together is sponsored by the Friends of Greenwich Library.
Ben Shattuck. Photo: Andreas Burgess
In twelve luminous interconnected stories set in New England across three centuries, The History of Sound examines the unexpected ways the past returns to us and how love and loss are entwined and transformed over generations. In Ben Shattuck’s ingenious collection, each story has a companion story, which contains a revelation about the previous, paired story. Mysteries and murders are revealed, history is refracted, and deep emotional connections are woven through characters and families.
The haunting title story recalls the journey of two men who meet around a piano in a smoky, dim bar, only to spend a summer walking the Maine woods collecting folk songs in the shadow of the First World War, forever marked by the odyssey. Decades later, in another story, a woman discovers the wax cylinders recorded that fateful summer while cleaning out her new house in Maine. Shattuck’s inventive, exquisite stories transport readers from 1700s Nantucket to the contemporary woods of New Hampshire and beyond—into landscapes both enduring and unmistakably modern. Memories, artifacts, paintings, and journals resurface in surprising and poignant ways among evocative beaches, forests, and orchards, revealing the secrets, misunderstandings, and love that linger across centuries.
Written with breathtaking humanity and humor, The History of Sound is a love letter to New England, a radiant conversation between past and present, and a moving meditation on the abiding search for home. The Boston Globe called The History of Sound “polyphonic fiction” and “a reminder of the short story’s power,” marking Shattuck “as one of the form’s brightest lights. . . . A terrific writer. . . . Deeply resonant.”
Ben Shattuck’s film adaptation of the title story starring Paul Mescal and Josh O’Connor premiered at the 2025 Cannes film festival. His first book, Six Walks: In the Footsteps of Henry David Thoreau (2022), was a New Yorker Best Book of 2022, a Wall Street Journal Best Book of Spring, a New York Times Best Book of Summer, a New England Bestseller, and was nominated for the Massachusetts Book Award. He is a graduate of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop and winner of the PEN Short Story Prize for Emerging Writers and a Pushcart Prize. He lives with his wife and daughter on the coast of Massachusetts, where he owns and runs the oldest general store in America, built in 1793.
Greenwich Reads Together is Greenwich Library’s community-wide reading experience that engages all of Greenwich in exploring a single book. It is supported each year by the Friends of Greenwich Library. In 2024, thousands of Greenwich residents participated in events around James by Percival Everett.
This year’s title was chosen by the GRT Selection Committee, led by Peterson Business Librarian Siobhan Schugmann. To be selected, the book must be of literary quality, reflective of universal issues and capable of generating thought-provoking discussions. It must lend itself to engaging public programs and appeal to a diverse population. It also needs to be currently in print and available in large quantities and in multiple formats, including eBook, audiobook, and large print.
Shattuck will speak in the Berkley Theater at Greenwich Library on Tuesday, October 28 at 7 p.m. He’ll be joined in conversation by his editor Allison Lorentzen. Registration will open in early October. The event will also be livestreamed on the Library’s YouTube channel. A recording will be available after the event.
The History of Sound is available at Greenwich Library in book, eBook, eAudiobook formats. For additional suggested titles for younger readers, please visit https://www.greenwichreadstogether.org. While there, find links to author interviews, book discussion guides, and reviews.
Greenwich Reads Together is made possible through the support of The Friends of Greenwich Library.
The 2025 Selection Committee was led by Librarian Siobhan Schugmann, and included Julia Celenza, Author Programming Librarian; Amy Fleishman, Community Volunteer; Daisy Florin, Friends of Greenwich Library Volunteer; Avery Carpenter Forrey, author of Social Engagement, Kathy McCormack, Perrot Memorial Library Board President; Dora Salm, Peterson Music Librarian; Hollister Sturges, Retired Men’s Association of Greenwich; Jerry Stinson, Great Books Discussion Leader; and Colleen Wood, Resources Management Librarian.
Previous Greenwich Reads Together selections include James (2024), Solito (2023), Olga Dies Dreaming (2022), Deacon King Kong (2021), Just Mercy and Mountains Beyond Mountains (2020), Fahrenheit 451 (2019), Code Girls (2018), News of the World (2017), Station Eleven (2016), Americanah (2015), The Boys in the Boat (2014), When the Emperor Was Divine (2013), Zeitoun (2012), and The Book Thief (2011).
Greenwich Reads Together is a community-wide reading experience which engages all of Greenwich in exploring a single book. Greenwich Reads Together is supported by the Friends of Greenwich Library. For more information, visit www.greenwichreadstogether.org.
The Greenwich Library system consists of the Main Library and its Byram Shubert and Cos Cob branches. The mission of Greenwich Library is to provide exceptional resources, programs and services that promote the joy of lifelong learning and discovery, and to offer a welcoming place for people to gather and share experiences. With 2,200 programs and events per year, the Library seeks to serve as the cultural and intellectual crossroads of the community. Greenwich Library’s circulation is among the highest of public libraries in Connecticut and has been named a five-star library by Library Journal 11 times for the high number of patron visits, circulation, use of public computers, and program attendance. Greenwich Library is located at 101 West Putnam Avenue in Greenwich. Cos Cob Library is located at 5 Sinawoy Road in Cos Cob. Byram Shubert Library is located at 21 Mead Avenue in Greenwich. More information is available online at www.greenwichlibrary.org or by calling 203-622-7900.