(Grass Valley, CA) — Sibylline author Suzy Vitello sat down with Cheryl Strayed (author of Wild and Tiny Beautiful Things) to discuss craft, life, and her new novel Bitterroot, released by Sibylline Press on May 21st, 2024.
Strayed’s Substack, Dear Sugar, is published monthly and has amassed over 100,000 subscribers. Her interview with Vitello was a part of her “Tell Us,” author series, where she interviews different writers about their past work, upcoming work, and the ways their lives inspired the work they create.
“But at its heart, Bitterroot, is a family story. Generational upheaval, sibling connection, and the way in which we define family beyond biology are all themes that drive the story,” Vitello described of Bitterroot in “Suzy Vitello Tells Us: About Making Friends With Your Spidey Sense.”
Bitterroot: A Novel can be purchased here.
Find Suzy Vitello’s events here!
Subscribe to Cheryl Strayed’s Substack Dear Sugar: https://cherylstrayed.substack.com/
About Bitterroot: A Novel
A forensic artist confronts a crime against her own family when her brother is shot when he hires an old friend as surrogate for his child, while MAGA politics, racism and violence rage in a small town in the Bitterroot Mountains of Idaho.
Set in the fictional town of Steeplejack, nestled in the Bitterroot Mountains, Hazel Mackenzie provides law enforcement with sketch art and victim reconstruction following suspected crimes, through her one-woman business, Bitterroot Renderings. Trouble strikes twice when her husband dies in an accident and then soon after, her gay twin brother Kento is shot by a member of Steeplejack’s growing anti-LBGTQ community during a gender reveal party. The party was coordinated by Corinda, the surrogate hired by Kento and his husband, Tom. It was Corinda’s estranged husband who pulled the trigger and subsequently abducts and brainwashes her into believing the lie that he shot Kento in self-defense as an edited video focuses on the antique Kwaiken knife in Kento’s hand.
As Hazel launches her brother’s defense with help from an attorney friend, she finds the town she grew up in increasingly polarized and dangerous. When she uncovers an ugly secret about her late husband, it leads her to the discovery of letters written by her great-grandfather during the second world war. He was a first-generation Japanese-American who was recruited by the US military while the rest of the family was interned in a prison-like camp. Now, some eighty years later, the same racism and prejudice threatens to strip Kento and his husband of their basic rights to their baby. Hazel must now confront her own intergenerational trauma as she battles for herself, her brother, and a town that has been torn apart by hate.
About Suzy Vitello:
Suzy Vitello writes and lives in Portland, Oregon with her husband and her dog and occasionally one or more of their five kids. She holds an MFA from Antioch, Los Angeles, and has been a recipient of an Oregon Literary Arts grant. Her previous novels include Faultland, The Moment Before and the YA Empress Chronicles series.