The Landlady of Maple Avenue

Winner of multiple book awards, The Landlady of Maple Avenue is a poignant and humorous literary family saga inspired by true events. Set in the 1950s, it follows the aging Marceline Gillis, an immigrant mother of seven, as she plots to reclaim her position as the matriarch and rightful landlady of a Victorian house on Maple Avenue. Battling family tensions, disappointments, and the grief of losing loved ones, Marceline navigates the complexities of power, ownership, and legacy within her tight-knit Catholic family. Her journey is filled with heartache and determination as she seeks validation after a lifetime of hardship. Gillis demonstrates remarkable skill in bringing the complex dynamics of a mid-20th century immigrant family to life in a way that modern readers can easily connect with. Her sharp wit shines through in the dialogue between family members, creating moments of levity that balance perfectly with the more poignant aspects of the story, and every character felt so real like they'd jumped straight out of a time machine.

Suzanne Elizabeth Gillis holds an MFA with honors in Screenwriting from Columbia University Graduate School of Arts and a BA in Narrative Writing and Film from Hampshire College. She previously owned a on-line business where she helped non-writers develop story ideas for feature screenplays and TV series since 2007. THE LANDLADY OF MAPLE AVENUE is her first novel inspired by true stories about her father's immigrant family from Nova Scotia, Canada, who immigrated to Cambridge, Massachusetts in the 1920s. She is currently completing her novel DR. TIGHTSKIN, a LGBTQ comedy based on her original comedy screenplay UNDER MY SKIN.