“Ten Thousand Lines” is an intriguing tale with unexpected plot developments. It’s easy to become invested in the character’s lives and captivated by the various possible outcomes. Both the story and many poetic individual lines resonate with a reader longer after the last page has been turned.

Bitter’s novel is a massive onion of layers. Digging her sharp dagger, peeling away layer after layer, the author pokes and prods at government, religion, intolerance, bigotry and just for the fun of it, a little sexual repression. Bitters allows us to laugh with Elmer, cry a little with him and triumph as he struggles to come to grips, not with a new life, but with himself.

Complex, violent, and thoughtful, a book to disturb your sleep long after you’ve finished.

Bitters’ prose is complex and eloquent, permeated with startling imagery and powerful language.