Summer In The City Of Roses

(Hardback)

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Description

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.

Reviews

Praise for Summer in the City of Roses

Shortlisted for the Ursula K. Le Guin Prize for Fiction
A Tor.com Best Books of 2021
An SLJ Teen Toolbox Favorite Book of the Year

The tone . . . is likea Portland version of the charactersone might find in Francesca LiaBlocks L.A., only Keil eschewsBlocks lean prose for a denser narrative. But . . . about halfwaythrough, that tone changes, andwere thrust into something different: enchanting, strange, filled with wonder, and a whirlpool ofendless possibilities . . . Highly recommended.
Fantasy & Science Fiction

Michelle Ruiz Keils writing is achingly beautiful, her books deep, thought-provoking, and magical. She doesnt flinch from the raw pain of teens coping with rough stufffrom abuse and neglect to identity issues and neurodivergencebut transforms them (sometimes literally) through magical realism, into haunting and luscious modern fables that are still grounded and gritty in all the best ways . . . A mosaic of Greek tragedy, punk rock, Shakespeare, social conscience, folklore, and mysticism, Summer in the City of Roses glitters even as its sharp edges cut and draw blood.
Laini Taylor

A gorgeous, tender, warm-hearted reworking of mythic material that also feels resolutely set in the world that we live in.
Kelly Link, author of Get in Trouble

Michelle Ruiz Keil has crafted an absolute stunner of a novel full of myths and misfits. Summer in the City of Roses pulses with magic and music and is, at its core, a grand celebration of love inall its tricky and beautiful forms.
Samantha Mabry, author of All the Wind in the World and Tigers, Not Daughters

Summer in the City of Roses is riveting, singular, poetic, powerful, fierce, soft, heartbreaking, and heart-mending, as tender as velvet and sharp as the bloody antler underneath. Michelle Ruiz Keil is the Erin Morgenstern of YA.
Delilah Dawson, author of the New York Times bestseller Star Wars: PHASMA and coauthor of the Tales of Pell

This enchanting booklike the real-life magical city where it's setwill draw you in and transform you into a more alive and creative version of yourself. A captivating work of magical realism that will delight both YA and adult readers. Michelle Ruiz Keil writes like a dream.
Ariel Gore, author of We Were Witches

Grab this book and your tarot deck, head to Forest Park, and fall into a folkloric, feminist journey through the City of Roses.
Ariel Kusby, author of The Little Witchs Book of Spells

Lush, empathetic, strident, puckish, infused with a street-level punk-rock magic . . . Much of its magic hums along like a current beneath the books skin, bursting out in full bloom for a transformative finale. But its there all along, if youre lookingand this is the kind of book you want to give your full attention to.
Tor.com

Part myth, part magic, this is an imaginative tale that speaks to the challenges and joys of growing up.
Ms. Magazine

[An] enchanting read . . . If you are nostalgic for the early 1990s, enjoy retellings of Greek fairy tales, are curious to explore a world where things are possible, and have time to sit with the story after turning the last page, then this novel is worth the time.
Feminist Book Club

Alternative parenting. Arts and maker communities. Street-level social work that included outreach to sex workers. Feminist activism that included the Riot Grrrls movement. All those threads and more come together in Ruiz Keils new novel,Summer in the City of Roses, a coming-of-age fairy tale that draws from Greek mythology and Grimm Brothers lore to tell the story of a pivotal season for siblings Iphigenia and Orestes.
The Oregonian

In alternatingperspectives, this contemporary reimagining diverges from its inspirations: the myth of Iphigenia and Orestes and theBrothers Grimms Brother and Sister. The families in both stories suffer because of magical forces, patriarchalviews, human shortcomings, and inequitable justice systems, but in Keils telling, it is by upholding peoples identity,dignity, and bonds, and not breaking them, that tragedy is averted. Educators especially will adore this immersivework not only as a comparative text but for its theater and pop culture references and its empathetic treatment ofmarginalized people . . . An insightful reimagining of myth that champions an array of social causes. An absolute must-read for teens and educators who love advocacy, myths, or folktales.
School Library Journal, Starred Review

Strong, often lyrical writing lifts this moving and thought-provoking coming-of-age story above the ordinary. Summer in the City of Roses combines lots of different elements like myth, fairy tale, magical realism, history, family, and more, without ever losing its sense of place, or sense of humor. Iph and Orr are easy to understand and empathize with, and teens will relate to the ways they cope, or try to cope, with big changes in their lives.
Common Sense Media

A standout book about runaways finding what they need.
School Library Journal's Teen Librarian Toolbox

This is a tale of sibling love if I ever read one . . . all manner of beautiful mayhem ensues. Fairytales come to life in this imaginative coming-of-age narrative that explores the complex wonder of sibling love.
Book Riot

Divided into four acts, this sui generis novel is replete with a fairy tale ethosand references to Shakespeare, and magic becomes an increasingly powerful presence as theplot proceeds . . . Keil's novel will be a treat for romantics and fans of Anna-Marie McLemore and Francesca Lia Block.
Booklist

Michelle Ruiz Keil's writing sparkles with magic and imagination. Rich with references to such diverse subjects as Shakespeare, punk music, Greek mythology and Mexican culture, Summer in the City of Roses is a smart page-turner written with elegance and depth. Keep your eyes open. In this particular City of Roses, things aren't exactly as they seemin surprising and wondrous ways.
Gigi Little, Powell's Books

Two siblings try to find each other in this queer and feminist journey . . .Set in the early 90s, this novel with mythological influences captures the mystical, feminist wonder of the City of Roses underground scene. Through its enchanting, dual storylines, readers spend considerable time with Iphs and Orrs inner thoughts, making this an intimate and observant character study . . . Quirky, contemplative, and nostalgic.
Kirkus Reviews

Though no wicked stepmothers or Greek gods inhabit the world of this surreal, magical realist tale set in 1990s Portland, Ore., Keil (All of Us with Wings) steeps the narrative in fairy tale and myth . . . With ample 90s references and an empathic, feminist bent, Keil brings a past incarnation of Portland to life in vivid detail . . . A nostalgic, heady read perfect for a summer day.
Publishers Weekly

Take a sturdy helping of the Greek myth of Iphigenia, add in some fairy tale influences, and finish it off with some late twentieth century Portland punk scene, and you end up with this clever and memorable novel . . . Magical realism abounds here, especially as the novel progresses and the family finally converges, only to find that one of them has changed in important ways. Its dreamy and hopeful, painting a picture of a world where everyone can be themselves, even if that means stepping outside of their human forms. Indeed, claiming identity is a key element here as gender identity, sexuality, and individuality within a tight knit family or culture are all explored in depth.
The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books


Praise for All of Us with Wings

Keils ambitious debut is jam-packed with twists and depth and froth and function . . . [This is] a book about embracing everythingpeople, lifestyles, beliefs, experiencesand, in so doing, finding your own distinct power.
The New York Times Book Review

Michelle Ruiz Keil crafts a fantastical ode to the Golden Citys postpunk era.
Entertainment Weekly

A spellbinding tale about finding magic in the mundane and hope in the unknown.Filled with dizzying danger and electrifying music, All of Us with Wings left me breathless.
Ruth Ozeki, Los Angeles Times Book Prize-winning author of A Tale for the Time Being

Keil is a new voice to keep an eye on.
Zoraida Crdova, author of Labyrinth Lost

Michelle Ruiz Keils strange but original premise gives fresh perspective to the ways pain and rage can manifest themselves as toxic elements that threaten a persons well-being and endanger those around them.
NBC News

Author Bio

Michelle Ruiz Keil is a Latinx writer and tarot reader with an eye for the enchanted and a way with animals. Her critically acclaimed debut novel, All of Us With Wings, was called "a transcendent journey" by The New York Times. A San Francisco Bay Area native, Michelle has lived in Portland, Oregon, for many years. She curates the fairytale reading series All Kinds of Fur and lives with her family in a cottage where the forest meets the city.