Launch Event for Bitterroot by Suzy Vitello in Conversation with Debby Dodds at Powell’s Books
Join author Suzy Vitello at Powell’s Books in Portland, OR to celebrate the release of her new novel Bitterroot with a talk and book signing! Vitello will be discussing her novel with Debby Dodds, author of Amish Guys Don’t Call.
EVENT TIME: May 23rd, 7pm
For more event info, please visit: https://www.powells.com/book/bitterroot-9781960573964/2-0
LOCATION:
3415 SW Cedar Hills Blvd.
Beaverton, OR 97005
About Bitterroot: 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 JapaneseAmerican 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 Author 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.
