In conversation with Genevieve Kingston and Tracy O’Neill, moderated by Carol Fitzgerald, at St. Peter’s Episcopal Church, 2:30 pm to 3:20 pm
About the author
Michelle Horton is a writer and advocate living in New York’s Hudson Valley with her son, nephew, and niece. 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.
MFOB featured book: Dear Sister
Dear Sister is 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.
In September 2017, a knock on the door from police upends Michelle’s life forever: her sister had just shot her partner and was now in jail. Everything Michelle thought she knew about her family unraveled in that moment. During the investigation that follows, she learns that Nikki had been hiding horrific abuse for years.
Stunned to find herself in a situation she had only encountered on television and in true crime podcasts, Michelle rearranges her life to care for Nikki’s children. And she simultaneously launches a fight to bring Nikki home, squaring off against a criminal justice system seemingly designed to punish the entire family.
Michelle retraces their childhoods and explores how so many people, including herself, could have been blind to the abuse. An intimate look at a family surviving trauma, Dear Sister is a deeply personal story about what it takes to be believed, as well as the danger of keeping truths hidden. Ultimately, Horton turns her family’s suffering into hard-won wisdom: a profound story of resilience and the unbreakable bond between sisters.
