A star-studded crowd turned up at sumptuous home of interior designer [and Hamptonite] Darren Henault and Michael Bassett to fête bestselling author Michael Hainey on the success of his stunning memoir, After Visiting Friends, on Monday, April 29th.

The room was filled with haute Hamptonites including interior designer and talk show host Nate Berkus, and new fiancé Jeremiah Brent. Fashion designer Thom Browne, Pratesi CEO Federico Pratesi with his wife Gaia, Vanity Fair’s Jim Reginato, Travel and Leisure editor in chief Nancy Novogrod, New York magazine’s Wendy Goodman, power attorney Richard Farley, The Common Good Founder Patricia Duff, Debbie Bancroft, Adelina Wong Ettelson, and Dr. Lisa Airan raised a champagne flute to the author, along with his beautiful wife, Brooke Cundiff, VP and Fashion Director at Gilt Groupe .

After Visiting Friends depicts Hainey’s quest to uncover the truth about what actually happened the night his father mysteriously died, when the author was just 6. Henault toasted Hainey, saying:

“A few months ago I was sitting next to Michael at a dinner and he casually mentioned he’d written a book. It wasn’t out yet so I asked him to send me an advance copy. When I started reading the book I would read twenty pages and email him, “I’m shattered”. Twenty pages later, I dashed off, “This is phenomenal”. He emailed back and kindly suggested that I finish the book and then we would talk as he probably had 300 people doing the same!”

Adding, “We all have people in our lives who are talented and doing amazing things, but what Michael has done is rare. He has looked at his family and the dynamic of their relationships honestly and intensely but with no judgment. His capacity for self-reflection and the insight he gleaned from doing so is extraordinary.”

*To order the book, please go to: http://www.amazon.com/After-Visiting-Friends-Sons-Story/dp/1451676565