SAVING ELLEN | A Busboys and Poets Books Presentation
Date and Time
Jul 17, 2025 6:00 pm
Location
Takoma
235 Carroll St NW, Washington, District of Columbia, 20012
Jul 17, 2025 6:00 pm
Takoma
Join us to discuss a memoir of hope and recovery following a large, working-class Irish family as it plunges into chaos in the wake of a terminal diagnosis
“I love this brilliant, stunning, shattering memoir about a complicated, tight-knit family. While reading it, I laughed out loud and I wept. Maura Casey writes masterfully about a mother’s devotion, and a daughter’s evolution into becoming a woman and a writer. Unforgettable.” –J.Courtney Sullivan, author of The Cliffs
Financial privation and her father’s drunken scenes formed the backdrop to Maura Casey's childhood, but her sister Ellen’s years-long struggle with kidney disease consumed their large Irish family. Determined to see Ellen live to adulthood, her mother fought medical advice to donate a kidney at a time when organ transplants were medical miracles. She concealed the true impact of that decision, which would affect the family for years.
Set in Buffalo amidst the tumult of the 1960s and 70s, Saving Ellen traces the author's recovery from alcoholism and sexual assault and tells of her irrepressible older sister Ellen, who fought to claim her dream of becoming an athlete; her smart, feminist mother, whose World War II Army service prepared her to manage her own platoon of six children; and her adulterous, alcoholic father who, at the end, was haunted by his shortcomings and regrets. Despite the hard truths of her childhood, Saving Ellen is ultimately a story of humor at unexpected moments as well as the grace of reconciliation and gratitude.
Maura Casey is joining us on the Busboys stage to dive deeper into this memoir and celebrate “the triumph of the human spirit” (Wally Lamb, author of She’s Come Undone). Copies of the book will be available for purchase during and after the event, and Casey will be signing following the program.
This event is free and open to all. Our program begins at 6:00 pm, and will be followed by an audience Q&A. Copies of SAVING ELLEN will be available for purchase before and after the event. Please note that this event is in person and will not be livestreamed.
We ask that guests RSVP in order to receive direct updates about the event from Busboys and Poets Books
Maura Casey grew up in Buffalo, N.Y., the youngest of a large Irish family. For more than thirty years, Casey was an editorial writer for three New England newspapers and The New York Times, where she had a seat on the exalted Times editorial board. She and her husband Pete have two adult children and two perfect granddaughters. They live on a Connecticut farm with two golden retrievers and a barn cat. Casey writes a weekly column, Casey’s Catch, (https://maurac.substack.com). She has a bachelor's degree from Buffalo State University and a master's degree in Journalism and Public Affairs from The American University.
