Yume Kitasei w/ Katie Campbell, SALTCROP

RECHEDULED EVENT!

Yume Kitasei, the author of The Stardust Grail and The Deep Sky, visits the store to discuss her latest novel, Saltcrop, the epic tale of two sisters who sail across oceans to find their missing third sister—and Earth’s environmental salvation. She will be joined in conversation by Katie Campbell, editor, reporter, and creator of KUOW Book Club.

In Earth's not too distant future, seas consume coastal cities, highways disintegrate underwater, and mutant fish lurk in pirate-controlled depths. Skipper, a skilled sailor and the youngest of three sisters, earns money skimming and reselling plastic from the ocean to care for her ailing grandmother.

But then her eldest sister, Nora, goes missing. Nora left home a decade ago in pursuit of a cure for failing crops all over the world. When Skipper and her other sister, Carmen, receive a cryptic plea for help, they must put aside their differences and set out across the sea to find—and save—her. As they voyage through a dying world both beautiful and strange, encountering other travelers along the way, they learn more about their sister's work and the corporations that want what she discovered.

But the farther they go, the more uncertain their mission becomes: What dangerous attention did Nora attract, and how well do they really know their sister—or each other? Thus begins an epic journey spanning oceans and continents and a wistful rumination on sisterhood, friendship, and ecological disaster.

Yume Kitasei is the author of Saltcrop, The Stardust Grail, and The Deep Sky. She is Japanese and American and grew up in a space between two cultures—the same space where her stories reside. She lives in Brooklyn with two cats, Boondoggle and Filibuster.

Katie Campbell joined KUOW's online team as an editor and reporter in 2024, after serving three years as senior producer of the local Morning Edition program. She has covered a variety of local topics, including Seattle politics, elections, and the arts. She also co-hosts KUOW's weekly arts podcast, Meet Me Here, highlighting the local literary scene and visiting authors. In 2024, Katie created the KUOW Book Club, featuring stories and authors from the Pacific Northwest. Katie's picks have included classics, like Timothy Egan's The Good Rain, and more recent hits, like Sonora Jha's The Laughter. At the end of each month's reading, Katie interviews the featured author, giving readers a chance to hear from some of the most talented writers in the region. All readers are invited to join the KUOW Book Club by signing up for the newsletter at kuow.org/books.

Know what’s Happening Next — before everyone else does.

Get App

Host or Publisher Elliott Bay Book Company