Book Talk: Restoration by Carol Davis

Join us for an evening with writer, archivist, and architecture researcher Carol Davis to discuss her debut novel, Restoration: A Novel (Rise Books, 2026). Davis will be in conversation with author and architectural conservator Rosa Lowinger.

About the book:
A literary novel about grief, inheritance, and the quiet ways the past shapes the structures we build—and the ones we must rebuild.

In Restoration, an American architect travels to rural England in 1984 to restore a centuries-old barn, only to discover that the project will require far more than architectural skill. As hidden family histories emerge through letters, memories, and the landscape itself, she must confront the truths her family buried long ago.

As she begins uncovering the building’s layered history—old foundations, forgotten rooms, and the stories embedded in its beams—letters from the past begin to surface, revealing a family history she never fully understood. The deeper she goes into the restoration, the more the project begins to mirror her own reckoning with grief, inheritance, and identity.

Set against the quiet beauty of the English countryside, Restoration is a richly textured literary novel about the ways the past lives inside the structures we inherit—both the physical ones we restore and the emotional ones we carry with us.

Restoration is a moving meditation on the long process of rebuilding a life.

Speakers:
Carol Davis, Writer, Researcher, and Archivist
Rosa Lowinger, Writer, Architectural Conservator

About the Speakers:
Carol Davis is a writer, researcher, and archivist whose work explores history, memory, place, and the stories embedded in the built environment. She serves on the board of McSweeney's Literary Arts Foundation, is a co-founder and former board member of The Brigid Alliance, a women’s health organization, serves on the board of Synergos, an organization that advances bridging leadership which builds trust and collaboration to solve complex global issues. She holds a BA in Art and Architectural History and an MFA in Writing and Literature. Her work has brought her in close collaboration with architects and art conservators in New York, Los Angeles, and London. She and her husband divide their time between New York and The Berkshires. Restoration is her first novel.

Rosa Lowinger is a Cuban-American writer and architectural conservator with decades of experience in preserving historic buildings, works of art, and public sculpture nationwide. She was the 2009 Rome Prize Fellow in historic preservation and conservation at the American Academy in Rome and holds an M.A. in art history and conservation from NYU's Institute of Fine Arts. Her books include Tropicana Nights: The Life and Times of the Legendary Cuban Nightclub; Promising Paradise: Cuban Allure, American Seduction; and Dwell Time: A Memoir of Art, Exile, and Repair. In Fall 2026, two new books arrive: the children's picture book Luisa of the Sea in October, and her first novel, Shadowlands, in December.