Claire Hoffman with Heidi Merrick Live at Tattered Cover Colfax

Join us for a fascinating event with journalist and author Claire Hoffman as she shares about her new biography, Sister, Sinner: The Miraculous Life and Mysterious Disappearance of Aimee Semple McPherson on Thursday, July 10th at 6:00 PM at our Colfax location.

Registration includes the following options:

• A signed copy of the book … OR

• A $5 Gift Card to Tattered Cover Book Store

We will have a limited supply of additional books for guests to purchase in store. Only a book ticket guarantees you a copy of the book.

If you are unable to attend the event after purchasing a ticket, you are required to pick up your copy of the book (with proof of purchase from your event registration) within 7 days after the event date. If the book is not picked up by that date, you relinquish your copy to Tattered Cover Book Store.

ABOUT THE BOOK

The dramatic rise, disappearance, and near-fall of Aimee Semple McPherson, America’s most famous woman evangelist.

A spring day in 1926: Aimee Semple McPherson goes for a swim in the Pacific Ocean and vanishes. She is presumed dead. Weeks later she reappears in the desert, claiming to have been kidnapped. A national media frenzy and months of investigation ensue. Who was this woman?

America’s most famous evangelist, McPherson used spectacle, storytelling, and the newest technology—including her own radio station—to bring God’s message to the masses. Her innovations brought Pentecostalism into the mainstream, paved the way for televangelists, and shaped the future of American Christianity. Her Angelus Temple in Echo Park, Los Angeles, can be called the first megachurch. Her Foursquare Church continues, with more than eight million faithful around the world.

But after her disappearance, as crowds gathered at the water’s edge, people asked: Was McPherson everybody’s saintly sister, or a con-artist sinner? This is the story of what happened next—sex scandals, religious persecution, legal shenanigans, the unshakable faith of thousands of followers, and the race to report it all. A riveting journey into the rise of popular religion in America and life in early Hollywood, told with the flavor of the period's noir mysteries, Claire Hoffman's Sister Sinner is the thrilling story of an iconic woman, largely overlooked, who changed the world.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Claire Hoffman is the author of the memoir Greetings from Utopia Park and a journalist reporting for national magazines on culture, religion, celebrity, business, and other subjects. She was a staff reporter for the Los Angeles Times and Rolling Stone. She is a graduate of UC Santa Cruz and has an MA in religion from the University of Chicago and an MA in journalism from Columbia University. She serves on the boards of the Columbia School of Journalism, ProPublica, and the Brooklyn Public Library.

ABOUT THE CONVERSATION PARTNER

Heidi Merrick, a California designer and founder of her eponymous label, celebrated for translating the beauty of her environment into timeless, modern clothing. Over the past 20 years, she has built a fashion house rooted in craftsmanship, authenticity, and narrative—both as a designer and a devoted reader who values the power of story in all forms.

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