For a Muse of Fire

Confessions of a Hater

Impossible

The Trilogy of Two

Something Like Possible

Our Crooked Hearts

Liccle Bit

The Miracle on Ebenezer Street

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 he brings Iph to a work gala in downtown Portland and breaks the news, Orr has already been sent away. Furious at his 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 figures out how to track 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 to try to stop a transformation that could fracture 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.

Discover Your Child's Next Read

For a Muse of Fire

Heidi Heilig, 2018

Confessions of a Hater

Caprice Crane, 2013

Impossible

Nancy Werlin, 2008

The Trilogy of Two

Juman Malouf, 2015

Something Like Possible

Miel Moreland, 2023

Our Crooked Hearts

Melissa Albert, 2022

Liccle Bit

Alex Wheatle, 2015

The Miracle on Ebenezer Street

Catherine Doyle, 2020