Suzy Vitello
Faultland

Faultland

FAULTLAND IS HERE!

Ten years after the COVID pandemic raged through the world and killed their mother, the Sparrow siblings find themselves torn apart with long-held grievances and secrets. When an earthquake decimates Portland, a horrific crime is exposed and threatens to fracture their family beyond repair.

Prior to the quake, Olivia, Sherman and Morgan Sparrow lived a life of privilege, and were blind to their individual faults: Olivia led an excessive lifestyle, Morgan cycled through risky behaviors, and Sherman dabbled in nefarious business practices. They all resent their dementia-riddled and abusive father, Clyde, but when his caregiver confronts the Sparrow siblings with details of a shocking crime, Olivia, Morgan and Sherman are forced to examine the truth of their past. As their shaky foundations collide, an earthquake levels their city.

Olivia treks across a shattered Portland to reach her family; Sherman struggles to protect his siblings from militia looters and thugs; and Morgan grapples with divided loyalties. Meanwhile, their shelter is in the path of loosened earth repeatedly shaken by aftershocks.

Previously separated by secrets and resentments, they realize they are now united by survival. If resources don’t run out, if sickness doesn’t overtake them, if alt-right militia members don’t intervene, and if the wet mass of land speeding toward their makeshift shelter doesn’t bury them, they will have to navigate their past traumas and their parents’ mistakes. Only then can they honor those they have lost―and survive as a family.

“Suzy Vitello always wrote incredible characters, injecting them with deep veins of carefully-observed humanism, and with FAULTLAND she adds ‘prophet’ to her list of skills. This book is prescient, gripping, darkly funny, and above all, written for this moment in time—imbued with the kind of thoughtfulness and hope we need to light the way forward.” ~ Rob Hart, author of THE WAREHOUSE

Gah! One can only hope to ride out the next climate catastrophe in company as raunchy, sharp witted and, most of all, deeply curious about the human struggle, grounded in shattered love, as the characters in Suzy Vitello’s FAULTLAND.  Readers will sink into this book and emerge on new emotional ground. It is stunning.” ~ Monica Drake, author of CLOWN GIRL

Suzy Vitello’s Faultland cracked open my heart. Amidst family fracture and geologic upheaval a profound story of human interaction emerges in all its chaos and beauty. Sitting atop the very real subduction zone in Portland, Oregon, this family drama exposes the striations between humans and land formations–at once devastating as well as dazzling. This book is part of our present tense; I love it with my whole body.” ~ Lidia Yuknavitch, author of VERGE