Dangerous secrets, past tragedies, and a violent obsession emerge when Emerson and her estranged family agree to care for a ten-year-old Native-Alaskan girl and a complete stranger, Addie, in the wake of Addie’s single mother attempting suicide. Emerson has buried her emotions since her husband’s suicide a decade past. Meanwhile, her younger sister, Tillie, pursues a new romance with a woman and avoids her questions about the accident which left her in a wheelchair. Their mother, Eve, flits through life unable to address her daughters’ pain. And the handsome neighbor, Henry, jumps from one adulterous relationship to another while pining for the woman he truly loves. If these five can face their true selves, each other, and their past, they just might find a way forward to a life filled with love and happiness.
About the Author
The Gifts We Keep is Katie Grindeland’s first book and select participant of the 2016 Multnomah County Library Writers Project. She grew up outside Seattle, Washington, and has lived in Portland, Oregon, for most of her adult life. Katie has worked on a fish processing barge in Alaska, as a caregiver for “a radical activist woman” in a wheelchair, and currently as a 911/Police/Fire dispatcher. In her free time she enjoys writing, hiking, and watching The Office on repeat with her two teenagers.
Library Writers Project
Ooligan Press and Multnomah County Library have created a unique partnership celebrating the Portland area’s local authors. Each fall since 2015, Multnomah County Library has solicited submissions of self-published works of fiction by local authors to be added to its Library Writers Project ebook collection. Multnomah County Library and Ooligan Press have partnered to bring these previously ebook-only works to print. The Gifts We Keep is the first of a planned annual series of Library Writers Project books to be published by Ooligan Press.
Discussion Guide
Interested in reading this novel in your book club? Check out our Discussion Guide.
Launch Event
Location: Rogue Hall: 1717 SW Park Ave, Portland, OR 97201
Time: 4/11/2019, 5-8pm
Join us at Rogue Hall to celebrate the launch of The Gifts We Keep by Katie Grindeland! Enjoy snacks and appetizers, excellent local beers on tap, participate in fun activities including free tarot readings, and enter for the chance to win raffle prizes! Katie Grindeland will be reading from her debut novel, The Gifts We Keep. Don’t miss your chance for early release copies available for purchase and signing! We’re gonna have a blast! Can’t wait to see you there!
