Summer in the City of Roses (Hardcover) (ISBN-13: 9781641291712)

Inspired by the Greek myth of Iphigenia and the Grimm fairy tale "Brother and Sister," Michelle Ruiz Keil's second novel follows two siblings torn apart and struggling to find each other in early '90s Portland.

All her life, seventeen-year-old Iph has protected her sensitive younger brother, Orr. But this summer, with their mother gone at an artist residency, their father decides it's time for fifteen-year-old Orr to toughen up at a wilderness boot camp. When their father brings Iph to a work gala in downtown Portland and breaks the news, Orr has already been sent away against his will. Furious at her father's betrayal, Iph storms off and gets lost in the maze of Old Town. Enter George, a queer Robin Hood who swoops in on a bicycle, bow and arrow at the ready, offering Iph a place to hide out while she tracks down Orr.

Orr, in the meantime, has escaped the camp and fallen in with The Furies, an all-girl punk band, and moves into the coat closet of their ramshackle pink house. In their first summer apart, Iph and Orr must learn to navigate their respective new spaces of music, romance, and sex-work activism--and find each other before a fantastical transformation fractures their family forever.

Told through a lens of magical realism and steeped in myth, Summer in the City of Roses is a dazzling tale about the pain and beauty of growing up.

Author: Michelle Ruiz Keil
ISBN-10: 1641291710
ISBN-13: 9781641291712
Publisher: Soho Teen
Language: English
Published: 07/06/2021
Pages: 336
Format: Hardcover
Weight: 1.00lbs
Size: 8.40h x 5.70w x 1.10d

Review Citation(s):
Publishers Weekly 05/17/2021
Kirkus Reviews 06/01/2021
Bulletin of Ctr for Child Bks 07/01/2021
School Library Journal 07/01/2021 pg. 71
Booklist 07/01/2021 pg. 76