11/18/2024

6:00 PM

Exeter Community Library

Lynda Cohen Loigman

“The Love Elixir of Augusta Stern”

 

On the cusp of turning eighty, newly retired pharmacist Augusta Stern is adrift. When she relocates to an active senior community in southern Florida, she unexpectedly crosses paths with Irving Rivkin, the deliv­ery boy from her father’s old phar­ma­cy — and the man who broke her heart a life­time ago.
Back in 1920s Brook­lyn, a teenage Augus­ta finds her­self caught between her father’s trust­ed sci­en­tif­ic for­mu­las and the curi­ous, uncon­ven­tion­al reme­dies pre­pared by her great aunt Esther. In a des­per­ate bid for clar­i­ty about her romance with Irv­ing, Augus­ta impul­sive­ly uses Esther’s most potent elixir with dis­as­trous con­se­quences.
Six­ty years lat­er, con­front­ed with Irv­ing, Augus­ta is still haunt­ed by the mis­takes of her past. How did her plan go so spec­tac­u­lar­ly wrong? Did Irv­ing ever tru­ly love her or was he sim­ply play­ing a part?