Bailey Merlin at The Coop

Please join us for a reading and book signing with author and Harvard alum Bailey Merlin and Harvard Professor Suzanne Koven.

A Lot of People Live in This House follows Rachel as she arrives at the house on the hill alone as Job attends a meditation retreat in India for two weeks to unpack his own grief. She’s greeted by housemates who smile, bring her cups of tea, and seem happy she’s there. She hates it. Not long after, Job is trapped in India by a virus that’s grounded just about every plane in the world.

As she falls apart, her new housemates rally to find a way to get Job home. Everything Rachel thought she knew about living with others flies out the window and leaves only one remaining truth: Life can be a lot at once, but you don’t have to do it alone.

Bailey Merlin holds an MFA in fiction from Butler University and an MS from Harvard Medical School, and her writing has been published in numerous literary magazines, The Lascaux Review, ellipses…, among others. In addition to her writing, Bailey has co-performed a spoken word short story album and is the librettist of an opera. Based in Boston, Bailey lives in an intentional community with a dynamic cast of humans, a toddler, a dog, a cat, and a friendly ghost. You can find her creative work on baileymerlin.com.

Suzanne Koven is a primary care physician, a faculty member at Harvard, and the inaugural writer-in-residence at Massachusetts General Hospital. Her writing has appeared in the New England Journal of Medicine, Boston Globe, and other publications.