Hybrid Author Event: The Refuge, Carly Hillman

Date and Time

• Thursday, Sep 24, 2026  7pm - 8pm

Location

visit website

Details

East City Bookshop welcomes Carly Hillman to discuss her book, The Refuge, in conversation with Mimi Montgomery.

Note on Format: This hybrid event will have both an in-person component with limited seating as well as a virtual broadcast via Zoom Webinar. Both in-person and virtual attendees will be able to pose questions to the author during audience Q&A.

ABOUT THE REFUGE

Ava loves the wildlife refuge where she grew up, but the long-buried secrets she discovers there threaten to destroy her family—and the paradise they call home.

But is it really paradise if you’re trapped inside?

When wildlife ranger Johnny Hayward discovers a terrified young girl hiding in the grasses, he joins the tight-knit staff in trying to solve the mystery of how the girl, Maeve, came to their land. But when the police arrive, she tells them that Johnny is her father. He goes along with the lie, a split-second decision that entangles them both in a lifelong cover-up.

Decades later, Maeve’s daughter, Ava, grows up believing that same lie. Ava’s love for the Refuge, where she lives in the staff cabins with her mother and is training to be a tour ranger, prevents her from dwelling on the fact that her mother never leaves the grounds—and won’t explain why. But after starting to date a local boy, Ava begins to question her sheltered upbringing, shocked to discover that life outside their fences is not the nightmare her mother always taught her to fear. She is obsessed with answering one question: What is her mother so afraid of?

Angry that her mother and Johnny won’t give her answers, Ava follows a string of clues to investigate the disturbing events that led to Maeve’s arrival all those years ago, unearthing secrets that some will do anything to keep buried.

Carly Hillman is a Peabody award-winning television producer and writer who spent a decade working at The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, where she produced the interviews. She earned a degree in English from Harvard University, graduating with honors. The Refuge is her debut novel.

Mimi Montgomery is a reporter at Axios. She's written for The Washington Post, Washingtonian, Garden & Gun, and Outside Magazine, and her reporting has been featured on Jimmy Kimmel Live, Inside Edition, and CNN, among others. Mimi attended the University of Virginia and has a master's from Georgetown University. Originally from North Carolina, she lives in D.C. with her husband, son, and several furry dependents. Her first novel, Murder Bites, is out now.