December 9, 2010, Thursday - Reading by Keith Hollihan at The Loft

Time:  7:00pm

Location: The Loft, 1011 Washington Avenue South

The Loft presents a publication reading by 2010 Minnesota Writers’ Career Initiative Grant winner Keith Hollihan for his debut novel The Four Stages of Cruelty.

About Keith Hollihan:

Keith Hollihan lives in St. Paul, where his wife, artist Rosemary Williams, is a professor at a local university. After ending a short career as a business analyst, Hollihan works as a freelance writer and ghostwriter, and has produced over a dozen nonfiction business books.

About The Four Stages of Cruelty:

Ditmarsh Penitentiary holds many secrets within its walls, and the inmates aren’t the only ones who keep them. Given absolute authority, the guards often slip across the divide from law enforcement to criminality. Officer Kali Williams tries her best to stay on the right side of the law. Then she meets an inmate named Joshua who claims that another prisoner has drawn an elaborate comic book that holds a guide to Ditmarsh’s criminal underworld. Intense and arresting, The Four Stages of Cruelty is a powerful debut for fans of Umberto Eco and Carlos Ruiz Zafón.

“This is one intense book—brutally sad and heartbreakingly brutal, and filled with precise, vivid detail that brings the world of Ditmarsh Penitentiary vividly to life. I found it impossible to put down, not only because the plot is kinetic but because of Hollihan’s deep understanding of moral and emotional complexities.” – Dan Chaon, author of Await Your Reply and Among the Missing