Mike Avitabile

Two-Star Hotel Mike Avitabile

The lives of two strangers become unimaginably intertwined when one buys a painting that the other covets.

Grant, an American traveling in Paris, forgoes an opportunity to purchase a peculiar yet captivating painting of a bus that he sees hanging in a gallery window. Consumed with regret upon his return back home, Grant obsesses over the painting while subconsciously avoiding his tumultuous romantic and personal relationships.

Meanwhile, Laurent, a philandering Parisian hotelier, haphazardly purchases the painting as a gift for his mistress. But before he can deliver it to her, Laurent unexpectedly loses consciousness, awakening in a hospital bed with severe vision loss. Worse yet, his identity is upended; no one can identify his family or next of kin, and the life he thought he once lived now only seems to exist inside his own memories.

As both men struggle to reclaim their lives, their fates are unknowingly thrust together, the painting their shared touchstone in this delicately interconnected world.

Told through the voices of seven different characters, Two-Star Hotel is a raw and emotive journey that explores the intricate relationship between truth, perception, and desire.

"Engaging dialogue and characterizations."
- Kirkus Reviews

"Warm, passionate... Two-Star Hotel is an outstanding survey that keeps readers engaged and guessing even as it comes full circle to an unexpected, artistically pleasing conclusion."
- Midwest Book Review