The opening pages of Leah Stewart’s new novel, The History of Us,
features an illustrated map with various Cincinnati landmarks and
locations: Northside, the Museum Center, Mount Adams, Music Hall,
Cheviot, the Cincinnati Ballet, Over-the-Rhine and more. The map is just
the first sign that the Queen City will play prominently in a narrative
that centers on Eloise Hempel, the 45-year-old chair of the history
department at the fictional Wyatt University; a woman who, 17 years
earlier, was forced to leave her teaching gig at Harvard to return to a
hometown she thought she left behind for a seemingly bigger and more
satisfying life.
Stewart uses this premise to investigate the peculiar
pull Cincinnati has on its citizens, a place where “you could make a
virtue of grittiness, take pride in not living in some cleaner,
wealthier, wussier city.” The author — whose previous novels include The Myth of You and Me and Husband and Wife — will discuss The History of Us at 7 p.m. Tuesday. Free. Joseph-Beth Booksellers, 2692 Madison Road, Norwood. 513-396-8960, josephbeth.com.
