The Invisible Husband of Frick Island by Colleen Oakley has been chosen as the featured title for the Findlay-Hancock County Public Library’s 2023 CommunityREAD. Copies of the book are now available at the Findlay-Hancock County Public Library. The feature presentation by the author will take place on April 6, 2023 at Marathon Center for the Performing Arts. 

Piper Parrish's life on Frick Island—a tiny, remote town smack in the middle of the Chesapeake Bay—is nearly perfect. Well, aside from one pesky detail: Her darling husband, Tom, is dead. When Tom's crab boat capsized and his body wasn't recovered, Piper, rocked to the core, did a most peculiar thing: carried on as if her husband was not only still alive, but right there beside her, cooking him breakfast, walking him to the docks each morning, meeting him for their standard Friday night dinner date at the One-Eyed Crab. And what were the townspeople to do but go along with their beloved widowed Piper? 

Anders Caldwell’s career is not going well. A young ambitious journalist, he’d rather hoped he’d be a national award-winning podcaster by now, rather than writing fluff pieces for a small-town newspaper. But when he gets an assignment to travel to the remote Frick Island and cover their boring annual Cake Walk fundraiser, he stumbles upon a much more fascinating tale: an entire town pretending to see and interact with a man who does not actually exist. Determined it’s the career-making story he’s been needing for his podcast, Anders returns to the island to begin covert research and spend more time with the enigmatic Piper—but he has no idea out of all the lives he’s about to upend, it’s his that will change the most. 

Colleen Oakley is the USA Today bestselling author of You Were There Too, Close Enough to Touch, Before I Go, and The Invisible Husband of Frick Island. Colleen’s novels have been longlisted for the Southern Book Prize twice and Close Enough to Touch won the French Reader’s Prize. Her books have been translated into 21 languages, optioned for film and have received numerous accolades. 

A former magazine editor for Marie Claire and Women’s Health & Fitness, Colleen’s articles and essays have been featured in The New York Times, Ladies’ Home Journal, Women’s Health, Redbook, Parade, Woman’s Day, Fitness, Health, Marie Claire and Martha Stewart Weddings. A proud graduate of the University of Georgia’s school of journalism, Colleen currently lives in Atlanta with her husband, four kids, four chickens, and a terrier mutt named Baxter. 

CommunityREAD is a month-long community event that encourages reading and promotes the benefits of literacy. Originally created by the Findlay-Hancock County Community Foundation in 2003, the administration of CommunityREAD was assumed by the Findlay-Hancock County Public Library in 2012. Each year, a different book is chosen and read by community members during the month of March. Various events are planned throughout the month at the library and throughout the community. CommunityREAD 2023 and Colleen Oakley’s presentation are funded by the Friends of the Library, business and private sponsors, and the library’s general fund. For further information about CommunityREAD, visit www.findlaylibrary.org or call the library at 419-422-1712.