KUOW Book Club's October pick from Kirsten Sundberg Lunstrum is perfect for spooky season Katie Campbell October 01, 2025 / 9:03 am

The KUOW Book Club is reading "Elita" by Kirsten Sundberg Lunstrum this month.

This haunting novel, Lunstrum's first, follows child development scholar Bernadette Baston as she travels to the remote island of Elita in Puget Sound in hopes of solving a strange case. The island holds a prison, and a girl, dubbed Atalanta, has been found in the woods nearby. What's her story? If only she could tell us.

The story unfolds in the winter of 1951, a period that lends an extra dose of volatility to the moody Pacific Northwest setting. Even as a professional and subject matter expert on Atalanta's case, Bernadette is nonetheless held to mid-20th-century expect

See Full Page