‘As all Pittsburghers know, Homewood Cemetery is full of stories. Here Ellen Prentiss Campbell unearths not one but three, piecing together the fascinating yet little-known saga of the Hetzels. VANISHING POINT is a smart, sharp historical novel that combines the shifting mores of art and the changing fortunes of one extraordinary American family.’ – Stewart O’Nan, author of EMILY, ALONE and EVENSO
Vanishing Point, Ellen Prentiss Campbell’s newest historical novel, is a family epic spanning three generations and a hundred years, from the 1880’s to the 1980’s. The story of Pennsylvania artist George Hetzel’s complicated family explores their joys and sorrows, secrets and mysteries. Deeply researched and vividly imagined, it presents a family you will long remember as it celebrates the enduring strength of love and art.
Ellen Prentiss Campbell grew up in Pennsylvania and Maryland. A graduate of Smith College and The Bennington Writing Seminars, for many years Ellen practiced psychotherapy. Her novels The Bowl with Gold Seams and Frieda’s Song and her story collections Contents Under Pressure and Known by Heart have garnered awards, recognition and – best of all – many readers. Member of the National Book Critics Circle, her blog “Girl Writing” appears in The Washington Independent. Ellen lives walking distance from Politics and Prose.
Ellen will be in conversation with Dorothy Reno, classic-books columnist for the Independent. Her short fiction has been published in Canada and the United States; she is at work on a collection of essays. She lives in Washington DC and previously resided in Hanoi, Vietnam, and Tbilisi, Georgia.