Lorraine Adams has written about books, culture and the arts for The Washington Post and other publications. She recently completed her first novel, Harbor and is currently at work on her second.
There is a long, slow line. The queue of narrow-shouldered boys in thrift-store shirts and black-tighted girls with Emily Dickinson stares is blocking aisles in a Washington bookstore. The faithful look to be just out of college or just past 30. They thread through the door and onto the sidewalk.