An afternoon of memory and magic: ‘The Danbury Chronicles’ comes to Books & Books

By Coral Gables Gazette staff

Books & Books in Coral Gables will welcome novelist Timothy Schmand and writer-professor J.J. Colagrande on Saturday, November 1 at 5 p.m. for a free public reading and conversation about Schmand’s new novel, The Danbury Chronicles (BlazeVOX Books, $22). Presented in partnership with the Miami Book Fair, the event celebrates storytelling and the literary life that continues to thrive in South Florida. Reservations are recommended.

A Rust Belt tale with magical undertones

Set in Buffalo, New York, over a snowy Thanksgiving weekend in 1969, The Danbury Chronicles follows twelve-year-old Patrick Barry as he navigates a working-class neighborhood alive with humor, hardship, and strange grace. His only companion—and sometimes adversary—is his talkative reflection, a voice of constant commentary and mischief.

Through Patrick’s eyes, readers glimpse a neighborhood shaped by the adults’ survival strategies, a fierce dog’s surreal funeral, and a fabled football game between the Buffalo Bills and the Cincinnati Bengals played in a blizzard. The book’s mix of absurdity and poignancy has earned praise from early reviewers. Kirkus Reviews called it “a funny, thoughtful, and inventive portrait of teen angst.”

Schmand’s prose blends rust-belt realism with touches of the fantastic, creating what critics have described as “a neighborhood both solid and shimmering.” It’s a landscape of cracked sidewalks, frozen winds, and fleeting wonder—a coming-of-age world where humor becomes a means of survival.

An author rooted in story and place

A Buffalo native, Timothy Schmand moved to South Florida in 1982 “on a wagon train,” as he puts it, and has since become a quiet force in Miami’s literary circles. His fiction has appeared in The Miami Herald, Time Out Miami, and the Holland Herald, among other outlets, earning him the prestigious Calvino Prize for experimental fiction.

Schmand’s earlier novels, True Tales of Bad Benny Taggart and Just Johnson: The London Delivery, were published by local imprint Jitney Books, which has become a hub for Miami’s independent writers. His latest work continues that trajectory—bridging the intimate texture of small-town memory with the surreal energy of magical realism.

In conversation with J.J. Colagrande

The evening will be moderated by J.J. Colagrande, author of Headz: A Trilogy, Reduce Heat Continue to Boil, and Deco 2.0. A professor at Miami Dade College and publisher of Jitney Books, Colagrande has spent nearly two decades chronicling the city’s cultural evolution through outlets such as The Miami Herald, Miami New Times, and The Huffington Post.

Together, Schmand and Colagrande will explore how stories shape memory, how humor reveals truth, and how fiction set far from South Florida still resonates with readers here. The conversation will be followed by an audience Q&A and a book signing.

A gathering for readers and dreamers

For Coral Gables’ literary community, The Danbury Chronicles is more than a new release—it’s a reminder of how art crosses geography and generation. The event’s partnership between Books & Books and the Miami Book Fair continues a long tradition of fostering dialogue between authors and readers, from local poets to internationally acclaimed voices.

The reading begins at 5 p.m. at Books & Books, 265 Aragon Avenue. Admission is free, and books will be available for purchase at the event. Readers unable to attend can order copies online through booksandbooks.com.

For those drawn to the intersection of grit and grace, The Danbury Chronicles promises an evening of laughter, memory, and that rare literary alchemy where the ordinary becomes luminous.

Author: Coral Gables Gazette News Staff

Originally established in 1996 and relaunched as a digital publication in February 2025, the Coral Gables Gazette is an independent local news organization dedicated to factual, objective and accountable community journalism. Our newsroom reports on the people, policies, institutions and events shaping Coral Gables, Florida, providing residents with timely, informative coverage of the issues affecting their community. Our reporting includes City Hall, local government, municipal elections, public spending, real estate development, business, education, arts and culture, and neighborhood affairs throughout the City Beautiful. We follow City Commission decisions, examine public records and report on the businesses, organizations and individuals contributing to Coral Gables. We believe informed residents are essential to a healthy, engaged community. Stories published under the Coral Gables Gazette News Staff byline are prepared or compiled by the publication's editorial team. We strive for accuracy, fairness, transparency and clear distinctions between news reporting, opinion and advertising. Readers are encouraged to submit news tips, corrections, editorial inquiries and story suggestions through our Contact page and learn more about our standards through our Editorial Policy.