Nadia Bowers and Stephanie Wittels Wachs will discuss their books, “Dear Dealer: A Memoir” and “Last Day: How to Stop Losing Our Loved Ones to the Opioid Crisis,” at 7 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 24, at Vroman’s Bookstore in Pasadena.
The event includes a book signing, according to an online event listing posted by Vroman’s Bookstore.
Bowers’ memoir centers on her older sister, Sasha, a social worker who died of a fentanyl overdose in 2015 and was found in her car in a restaurant parking lot in the sisters’ hometown near New Haven, Connecticut, according to the publisher’s description of the book. Bowers was weeks from giving birth to her first child at the time, the description states.
With her sister’s phone in hand, Bowers set out to learn who had sold Sasha the drugs that killed her, the description states. The book expands on a 2018 essay of the same name that Bowers read on “This American Life,” written as a letter to the unknown dealer.
In an interview published this month by Slate, Bowers, an actress married to actor Corey Stoll, said writing to the dealer felt like reaching out to “a twisted pen pal.”
Wachs’ book grew out of the “Last Day” podcast, which she launched with Jessica Cordova Kramer after her brother, writer, producer and comedian Harris Wittels, died of an opioid overdose, according to the publisher’s description. Cordova Kramer’s brother died under similar circumstances, the description states. In an August interview with radio station KAZU, Wachs said her brother died Feb. 19, 2015.
According to the website GirlTalkHQ, the book, released Aug. 18, draws on years of conversations with doctors, policymakers, harm reduction advocates, researchers, people in long-term recovery, drug users and first responders. It is published by Gallery/Lemonada Books, an imprint of Simon and Schuster, according to Literary Hub.
Wachs is co-founder and CEO of the podcast network Lemonada Media and the author of an earlier memoir, “Everything Is Horrible and Wonderful: A Tragicomic Memoir of Genius, Heroin, Love, and Loss,” according to her author biography. She lives on California’s Central Coast, the biography states.
In a September interview with the book website Debutiful, Bowers noted that Wachs lost her brother the same year she lost Sasha and described “Last Day” as a practical, well-researched book.
Thursday, Sept. 24, 7 p.m. Vroman’s Bookstore, 695 E. Colorado Blvd., Pasadena. For more call (626) 449-5320 or visit https://vromansbookstore.com/event/2026-09-24/bowers-wittels-wachs.
