about the book
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AMAZON EDITOR'S PICK
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A breathtaking memoir about two sisters and a high-profile case: Nikki Addimando, incarcerated for killing her longtime abuser; and the author, Michelle Horton, left in the devastating fall-out to raise Nikki's young children and to battle the criminal justice system.
meet michelle
Michelle Horton is a writer, speaker, and advocate living in New York's Hudson Valley. Through the Nicole Addimando Community Defense Committee, she continues to speak out for her sister and the countless other victims of domestic violence criminalized for their acts of survival.
Since the publication of her debut memoir, Dear Sister, Michelle has been awarded:
Hudson Valley Magazine’s Best Author 2024
Fearless of the Hudson Valley’s Hope Award 2024
Domestic Violence Crisis Center’s Voices of Courage 2024
For media requests, contact: Staci.Burt@hbgusa.com
To book Michelle for an in-person or virtual speaking engagement, please contact: requests@authorsunbound.com
resources
Get Michelle’s supplemental reading list to better understand the cultural contexts for many of the themes in her book, as well as organizations to follow:
“Essential… this strong narrative points to the realities of the United States’ criminal justice system and how it can fail the most vulnerable.”
—Library Journal (starred review)
“Unflinching, vulnerable and bold… a story of family resilience, infinite love, friends, and communities …It’s a story you won’t forget. It is a story that matters because it’s more than Nikki’s story.”
—The New York Journal of Books
“Dear Sister stands alongside both Bowdler’s memoir Is Rape a Crime? and Chanel Miller’s bestselling 2019 Know My Name. It is a testament to Horton’s command as a writer that we do not look away. ”
—Southern Review of Books
“The sheer scale of what Michelle Horton has done — in this book, in her life, in telling her sister’s story and her own, in her very survival — will leave you awestruck. I didn’t read this book, I swallowed it. It will make you feel despair, rage, horror, and ultimately reverence and adoration. Hopefully, it will make you stand up and take notice of all we get wrong with survivors like Nikki Addimando. I don’t think anyone will read this book and not want to take to the streets and demand we do better. I know I’ll be out there. In a word, this book is miraculous.”
—Rachel Louise Snyder, author of No Visible Bruises and Women We Buried, Women We Burned
“This deeply felt and beautifully written book—this tale of tragedy and love, cruelty and community—will stay with me long after Nikki comes home and these two amazing sisters and their children can heal. It will stay with me, inspire me, and fuel my commitment to women, because as little Ben says at the end of the book, ‘It’s not over until we help all the other mommies who defended themselves get free.’”
—Elizabeth Lesser, Cofounder of Omega Institute and author of New York Times bestseller Broken Open
“A gripping account of one woman’s ongoing journey through hell—the inferno of an abusive relationship that ended with a bullet; the Hades of a legal system more determined to punish than to understand; and the parallel torment for those who love her, fight for her, and admirably endure.”
—Scott Turow, New York Times bestselling author of Presumed Innocent
“A searing read. The next frontier in preventing abuse against women is shining a spotlight on the cruelty and ignorance with which our courts treat victims of abuse, particularly those who defend themselves against violent men. Dear Sister is an important and painful story, beautifully told.”
—Leslie Morgan Steiner, New York Times bestselling author of Crazy Love
“Incendiary...a powerful testament to the tenacity of sisterly bonds, a scathing indictment of the legal landscape for abused women, and a wrenching exploration of the shame that allows abuse to remain hidden. This is difficult to forget.”
—Publishers Weekly (starred review)
