This event has passed
Sean David Robinson, "The Door in Penrose Forest" (in conversation with Abby Geni)
Featured Book
The Door in Penrose Forest
A man returns to his strange hometown twenty years after his mother climbed a staircase in the wilderness and disappeared in this speculative mystery where We Used to Live Here meets The Midnight Library. As a boy, Nico once accompanied his mother on a research trip to investigate a stalled migration of monarch butterflies. One night, upon hearing her sneak out of their rented cabin, he followed her to a clearing in the forest where a famed mansion once stood. Paralyzed with fear, he watched his mother climb a staircase and vanish, along with the stairs and the strange glowing door at its peak. No one believed his story, and as he grew older, he too stopped believing it was real. As an adult, Nico returns to his hometown to care for his ailing father. But something strange is happening to the town. There are unexplained power fluctuations, people are going missing, and, reportedly, phantoms are roaming the woods. When Nico finds his mother's field journal from the week she disappeared, including her account of the vanishing staircase, he begins to pick apart the mystery. All the tangled strings trail back to the same starting point: the Gilded Age family whose mansion burned down under mysterious circumstances in those very same woods where his mother vanished. Equally a compelling mystery and a moving story of family and destiny, this speculative novel will spellbind readers of Emily St. John Mandel and Susanna Clarke.
This book will be available for purchase at the event.
About This Event
Join us in-store at The Book Cellar to celebrate the launch of Sean David Robinson's debut novel, The Door in Penrose Forest.
Featured Author
Sean David Robinson
Sean David Robinson is a novelist and playwright whose work blends the eerie and the elegiac, exploring liminal spaces between the seen and unseen. A native of North Carolina, he began writing for the stage before turning to fiction; his off-Broadway play Starbright (2018) received two regional theatre awards for new writing. In 2022, he joined StoryStudio Chicago's Novel in a Year cohort, where he spent two years developing The Door in Penrose Forest, his debut novel of speculative upmarket fiction—a haunting exploration of time, family, and the strange architecture of grief. His primary literary influences are the works of David Mitchell, Margaret Atwood, and Emily St. John Mandel. Sean lives in Asheville, North Carolina, with his brilliant wife and longtime editor — plus many feline editorial assistants — surrounded by the forests and mountains of Appalachia, bottomless wellspring of magic and inspiration.
In Conversation With
Abbi Geni
Abby Geni is a novelist and short story writer. Children of the Wolf, her most recent novel, is forthcoming in September of 2026. She is the author of The Body Farm, longlisted for the Joyce Carol Oates Prize and the Story Prize; The Wildlands, a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize; The Lightkeepers, winner of the Barnes & Noble Discover Award and the Chicago Review of Books Awards; and The Last Animal, a finalist for the Orion Book Award. Her short stories and essays have appeared in dozens of literary publications, including Best American Mystery and Suspense, The Missouri Review, Epoch, Ninth Letter, and New Stories from the Midwest. Geni is a faculty member at StoryStudio Chicago and a recipient of the Iowa Fellowship.
About the Venue
The Book Cellar
What could be a better combination than books, wine by the glass, and cozy couches? Browse for the books you love to read at The Book Cellar in Chicago's Lincoln Square neighborhood, an independent bookstore featuring books by first-time authors, local authors, and more. The Book Cellar welcomes book clubs and discussion groups.
Visit store pageMore at The Book Cellar
Mary Dean Cason, "Daughters of Eve"
Join us in-store with author Mary Dean Cason for the launch of her novel, Daughters of Eve!
Veronica Bane, "We're All Going to Die Tonight!" with conversation partner Courtney Corlew
Join us in-store with Veronica Bane for the launch of her YA thriller We're All Going to Die Tonight! with conversation partner Courtney Corlew!
**OFFSITE** Cortney LaCorte (@cheesegal), "Oversharing" at Everybody's Coffee
Cortney LaCorte aka “@cheesegal” will be at Everybody's Coffee to discuss and sign her new cookbook "Oversharing" All tickets come with a signed copy of Oversharing!