Join Anderson’s Bookshop for an author event with Allison Buccola, to celebrate the release of her newest book, The Ascent, on Monday, May 19th at 6:00 pm in our Downers Grove store. Buccola will be in conversation with author Jenna Satterthwaite.

Event Format

We will begin checking you in approximately 30 minutes before the start time. After a presentation and Q&A with the author, the signing line will form in numbered order with the following guidelines:

• Posed photo with your camera taken by our staff
• There is a limit of 2 books from home to be signed (unless otherwise stated)
• There is a limit of 1 personalization of the new book only (unless otherwise stated)

All events have open seating. The “Order Line Number” on your pdf ticket is your reserved place in the signing line. You will line up to meet the author based on that number.

If you cannot attend, you must pick up your book (if included with ticket) at the hosting store within 30 days of the event.  We can ship that book to you for an additional charge of $9.99; please call the store to arrange that.

Pre-registration is required for this event because space is limited.

More about The Ascent:

What would you do if the past showed up on your doorstep?

A woman who grew up in a cult must decide if she can trust the stranger claiming to have answers to the dark mysteries of her childhood in this irresistible thriller.

“I tore through this book and was genuinely shocked by its ending!”—Ana Reyes, New York Times bestselling author of The House in the Pines

ONE OF THE CHICAGO REVIEW OF BOOKS’ MOST ANTICIPATED MYSTERIES OF THE YEAR

For decades, the whereabouts of The Fifteen has been an unsolved mystery. All the members of this reclusive commune outside Philadelphia vanished twenty years ago, except for one: a twelve-year-old girl found wandering alone on the side of the road.

In the years since that morning, Lee Burton has tried to put the pain of her past behind her, building a new identity for herself with a doting husband and seven-month-old daughter, Lucy. But motherhood is proving a bigger challenge than she anticipated. She doesn’t want to let Lucy out of her sight even for a moment. She can’t return to work. She’s not sleeping, and she has started spiraling into paranoia.

Then a stranger shows up on her doorstep, offering answers to all of Lee’s questions about her past—if Lee could only trust that this woman is who she says she is. Can Lee keep her safe, stable life? Or will new revelations about “the cult that went missing” shatter everything? In The Ascent, Allison Buccola has crafted a nerve-rattling thriller about motherhood, identity, and the truths we think we know about our families.

About the Author:

Allison Buccola is the author of Catch Her When She Falls. She has a JD from the University of Chicago and lives in the Chicago suburbs with her husband and their two young children.
 

About the Conversation Partner: 

Jenna Satterthwaite is a literary agent with Storm Literary Agency and the author of Made for You (out now), A Killer Getaway (Summer 2025) under pen name Sienna Sharpe, and The New Year’s Party (Fall 2025). Born in the Midwest, Jenna grew up in Spain, lived briefly in France, and is now happily settled in Chicago with her husband and three kids. Jenna studied classical guitar at the Conservatorio Profesional de Música de Zaragoza and earned her BAs in English Lit and French at Indiana University. Once upon a time, Jenna moonlighted as a singer-songwriter in folk band Thornfield. She loves sushi, reading in her natural habitat (aka her bed), and women taking back their power.