Elizabeth Wellington Rollins turned Saturday mornings at Dock Deli, Friday nights at Sunrise Pizza and homework sessions at the Rye library into a bestselling novel.

Rollins, a 2006 Rye High School graduate, published her debut, "The Three Graces of Pearl Street," on Tuesday, Sept. 1 through Atria/Simon & Schuster.

The 416-page novel is a Book of the Month Club pick and a USA Today bestseller.

The book follows three generations of women in the Valentini family, an Italian-American household on Pearl Street in Mamaroneck. Grandmother Graziella raised mother Grace and granddaughter Ella there, but Ella has been estranged for five years. A crisis pulls them back together.

Rollins modeled Graziella on her own maternal grandmother, Lucia, who was born in Westchester to parents who immigrated to New York City from Italy.

In a September author interview, Rollins said she "anchored her in the Italian-American culture of my maternal lineage, which inspired her primary mode of service: feeding people."

The novel's setting borrows freely from Rollins' childhood. Walter's Hot Dog Stand and Sal's Pizza (called Norma's in the book) both appear, along with Harbor Island in the Mamaroneck Marina.

Dock Deli, now Milton Point Provisions, and Belluscio's Restaurant, now Yaku, also shaped the world she drew from, the Rye Record reported.

The idea crystallized in 2022 after her father, Chuck, died. Three months after having her baby, Rollins flew back to bury his ashes at the Mamaroneck Methodist Church.

On the flight home, a slice of Sal's pizza in her lap, the story took shape.

Rollins credits two Rye teachers by name. Anna Ziegler at Osborn Elementary School helped her become a reader. Monica Goldstein, whom she thanks in the book's acknowledgments, kept her interested in literature. She based the novel's three-generation structure on the myth of the Three Graces, which she learned in Latin class at Rye High.

After graduating in 2006, Rollins attended Davidson College. She spent more than a decade freelancing about food and travel for Vogue, Condé Nast Traveler, Travel + Leisure and The Week while living in France and Spain. She now lives in Pomfret, Vermont, with her husband and daughter.

On Sept. 14, Rollins discussed the novel with New York Times bestselling author Annabel Monaghan at the Rye Free Reading Room in a "Read in Rye" event organized by Diane's Books. Monaghan, a former Rye Record contributor, provided a cover blurb calling the book "Truly captivating."