Ginger Dehlinger of Bend recently signed her first novel, Brute Heart, at the Bend Costco store.
Set in eastern Oregon, Brute Heart is the story of a young woman with an abusive, alcoholic father who manages to work her way through college veterinary school at Oregon State University. Not long after l ing her first veterinary position in Prineville, she faces the ultimate dilemma when she learns that the father she has hated most of her life is terminally ill expects her to euthanize him.
The “does she do it” question keeps the reader turning pages, but Brute Heart also includes many warm humorous segments involving family pets the animals she treats as part of her profession. An unusual blend of James Herriot’s delightful tales Sylvia Plath’s anguished poem, Daddy, this novel will be enjoyed by animal lovers as well as fans of family dramas or hardship to recovery stories.
Copies of Brute Heart are available at Camalli Book Company in Bend, the Deschutes County Library, Paulina Springs Books in Redmond Sisters, Book ‘n Bean in Prineville.