Willy Vlautin

'One of America's great writers.' RODDY DOYLE 'Vlautin's characters are a vast chorus of broken hearts, reaching for grace.' COLIN WALSH 'No one writes with such empathy and insight as Willy Vlautin.' BEN MYERS 'Vlautin writes about people overlooked by society and overlooked by literature.' ANN PATCHETT The moving, large-hearted story of a young boy in danger of slipping through society's cracks and the unlikely father figure who takes him under his wing.'And try to breathe, man. You gotta remember to breathe. You won't get so panicky if you can remember that.' Eddie Wilkens runs his own house-painting business. Forty-something and living alone, he just wants to take life one day at a time. When his eight-year-old neighbour, Russell, starts hanging around, Eddie sees that this small kid - with his single mother working nights and his violent older brother - is struggling to keep his head above water, and so tries to help. Equal parts heart wrenching and uplifting, The Left and the Lucky is a portrait of this unusual friendship - the ways hurt shatters people and the compassionate acts that can, maybe, hold some of those pieces together.

"One of America's greatest storytellers."--Jonathan Evison The acclaimed Willy Vlautin returns with a heartbreaking and tender novel about two young brothers, the vicissitudes of fate, and unexpected connection--a beautiful and bittersweet portrait that illuminates the power of friendship and how it can save lives in multiple ways. Eddie Wilkens is a workaholic house painter in his early forties. His wife has left him to her regret, and his main employee, Houston, is a loafer and scoundrel who barely shows up for work. Unassuming and self-reliant, Eddie is thoughtful man who rarely gets angry, despite life's frequent provocations, but he is ruled by a guilt that he has carried for nearly twenty years. Next door, a woman and her two sons move in with her frail and aging mother. The youngest boy, Russell, eight-years-old, is quiet and small for his age and lives in constant terror of his increasingly lost and troubled fifteen-year-old brother, Curtis. As their mother struggles to keep the family together and the grandmother's health begins to faulter they find themselves unable to protect Russell and themselves from Curtis's cruelty, which threatens to explode in frenetic violence. Though neither knows it, Russell and Eddie will become each other's saving grace. While Russell's home life disintegrates he begins waiting in Eddie's backyard for him to get off work. Eddie offers the boy small acts of kindness: he feeds him, gives him jobs to do, listens to his dreams of escape, and offers Russell a glimpse into a world of hope and humor. A world of misfit painters, a derelict muscle car, an old dog, and the comradery and companionship of Eddie and his crew. In return, Russell gives Eddie a reason to carry on and helps him lay to rest the guilt that has plagued him for half of his life. Together, this makeshift father and son begin to build better life, daring to trade the bleakness and cynicism around them for hope and friendship. From a writer revered for his thoughtful and compassionate portrayal of realistic American life, The Left and the Lucky is a heartbreakingly honest examination of how circumstance shapes our lives, and how the luck of finding someone who needs us can transcend bitter loneliness and prevent us from giving up on dreaming of a better life.

Winner of the Joyce Carol Oates Prize Finalist for the 2025 Oregon Book Award "Willy Vlautin writes about people overlooked by society and overlooked by literature. In The Horse, he tells the story of a tenderhearted man who has a steady talent and a crushing addiction. It is both a work of extraordinary compassion and a really great novel." -- Ann Patchett, New York Times bestselling author of Tom Lake"A moving tale of suffering and redemption, The Horse portrays the immense gravity of what it takes to be human in tough times, and the elusive grace that might just be grasped from music, animals, and memory." -- Geraldine Brooks, New York Times bestselling author of HorseAward-winning author Willy Vlautin explores loneliness, art, regret, and hard-won empathy in this poignant novel--his most personal to date--that captures the life of a journeyman musician unable to escape the tragedies of his past.Al Ward lives on an isolated mining claim in the high desert of central Nevada fifty miles from the nearest town. A grizzled man in his sixties, he survives on canned soup, instant coffee, and memories of his ex-wife, friends and family he's lost, and his life as a touring musician. Hampered by insomnia, bouts of anxiety, and a chronic lethargy that keeps him from moving back to town, Al finds himself teetering on the edge of madness and running out of reasons to go on--until a horse arrives on his doorstep: nameless, blind, and utterly helpless.Al hopes the horse will vanish as mysteriously as he appeared. Yet the animal remains, leaving him in a conundrum. Is the animal real, or a phantom conjured from imagination? As Al contemplates the horse's existence--and what, if anything, he can do--his thoughts are interspersed with memories, from the moment his mother's part-time boyfriend gifts him a 1959 butterscotch blonde Telecaster, to the day his travels begin. He joins various bands--all who perform his songs once they discover his talent-playing casinos, truck stops, clubs, and bars. He falls in love, and finds pockets of companionship and minor success along the way. Never close to stardom or financial success, he continues as a journeyman for decades until alcoholism and a heartbreaking tragedy lead him to the solitude of the barren Nevada desert.A poignant meditation on addiction, heartbreak, and the reality of life on the road in smalltime bands, The Horse is a beautiful, haunting tale from an author working at the height of his powers.

WINNER OF THE JOYCE CAROL OATES PRIZE'Extraordinary.' ANN PATCHETT 'Tremendously compelling.' GUARDIAN'Bruised and beautiful.' BEN MYERS'Transcendent.' LA TIMESWilly Vlautin's most personal novel yet - a poetic and deeply moving story about what it really takes to be a musician.Al Ward, an ageing musician, is living on old mining land in Nevada. One morning, a horse arrives outside his home, unable to feed itself or stay safe from coyotes. Six thousand feet up, thirty miles from the nearest town, and broken by alcoholism and anxiety, Al must decide what to do.A gorgeous journey of a novel, and an unforgettable character study of a lifelong songwriter, The Horse masterfully explores ideas of loneliness, creativity and resilience.'Another classic from one of America's greatest storytellers.'JONATHAN EVISON'A terrific parable of art and aging.'JESS WALTER

Romanen Hästen av Willy Vlautin i översättning av Andreas Vesterlund. Vlautins nya handlar om sextiosjuårige Al som dragit sig tillbaka och bor i ett gammalt skjul i ödemarken i Nevada med fem mil till närmaste granne. Han har inte el, inte WC, inte ens rinnande vatten men klarar sig ändå. Han kokar sitt kaffe och värmer sina konservburkar på ett gasoldrivet campingkök och det går veckor utan att han träffar någon. Han tänker tillbaka på sitt liv som turnerande musiker och låtskrivare. En morgon när han vaknar står en halvblind häst i bedrövligt skick utanför hans skjul och vägrar flytta på sig. Den bara står där, vill inte ens ha något att äta. Det är starten på en helt fantastisk roman om en turnerande musikers liv. Willy Vlautin är en av USAs nu levande viktigaste berättare. Det han berättar om är inte den glamorösa tillvaron för den rika delen av landets befolkning utan raka motsatsen. Han dyker ner i de mest utsatta socialgruppernas liv. Hans första roman - Motellivet - handlar om den stora del av USAs befolkning som inte har möjlighet att bo i permanent bostad, inte ens i den påvraste hyreslägenhet, eftersom de inte har några sparade pengar utan endast kontantlönen varje fredag. Då bor man på motell. (Och får man sparken från jobbet bor man inte ens på motell utan blir uteliggare.) Om man får tro nationalsången är USA de frias land - the land of the free. Läser man Willy Vlautin får man både en fördjupad bild och anledning att fundera några extra gånger över den så vackert besjungna amerikanska friheten. Willy Vlautin växte upp under tuffa villkor i den bedagade spelstaden Reno i Nevada i USA tillsammans med sin fabriksarbetande mamma och sin bror. Numera bor han i Portland i Oregon med sin fru och några hundar, katter och hästar. Han slog igenom 2006 med debutromanen The Motel Life (på svenska Motellivet, 2011) som följdes av Norrut, Lean on Pete, De fria, Sviker dig aldrig och Mörkret som faller. Detta är Vlautins sjunde roman. Tack vare Bakhålls direktkontakt med Vlautin kan vi ge ut vår översättning samtidigt som boken kommer ut i USA och England. Willy Vlautins roman Hästen i översättning av Andreas Vesterlund. ISBN 978-91-7742-611-0. Högkvalitetspapper, sydda ark, mjuka pärmar med flikar. 240 sidor.

There's a horse', he whispered. 'An old horse that's standing in front of my house. He's blind and he won't eat and I don't know what to do.'65-year-old Al Ward is several years into an isolated stint living on old mining land in Nevada left to him by his great uncle. One morning, the horse arrives outside his home, seemingly unable to feed itself or stay safe from coyote attacks. 6000 feet up, 30 miles from the nearest town and broken by alcoholism and anxiety, Al must decide what to do.Intercut with Al's present-day story are episodes from his long life as a songwriter and guitarist. Beginning in Reno, we follow his chequered career as a touring musician, struggling to make ends meet and to survive the reality of a like devoid of the glitz and glamour of mainstream success.Vlautin's new novel is a gorgeous homage to the uncelebrated musicians who make our lives more joyful, and, as always, an exploration of loneliness, humanity and resilience.

'Shot through with all the bruised romance and regret of a country-blues classic . . . Vlautin's characters are a vast chorus of broken hearts, reaching for grace.' COLIN WALSH'Tremendously compelling . . . as succinct and wrenching as a well-honed folk song.' GUARDIAN'A bruised and beautiful instant classic.' BEN MYERSWilly Vlautin's most personal novel yet - a poetic and deeply moving story about what it really takes to be a musician.'There's a horse', he whispered. 'An old horse that's standing in front of my house. He's blind and he won't eat and I don't know what to do.'67-year-old Al Ward is several years into an isolated stint living on old mining land in Nevada left to him by his great uncle. One morning, the horse arrives outside his home, seemingly unable to feed itself or stay safe from coyote attacks. 6000 feet up, 30 miles from the nearest town and broken by alcoholism and anxiety, Al must decide what to do.Intercut with Al's present-day story are episodes from his long life as a songwriter and guitarist. Beginning in Reno, we follow his chequered career as a touring musician, struggling to make ends meet and to survive the reality of a like devoid of the glitz and glamour of mainstream success.Vlautin's new novel is a gorgeous homage to the uncelebrated musicians who make our lives more joyful, and, as always, an exploration of loneliness, humanity and resilience.'Another classic from one of America's greatest storytellers.'JONATHAN EVISON'A terrific parable of art and aging.'JESS WALTER

This Side of the Divide: New Lore of the American West is the second entry in the Divide anthology series attempting to capture the newness, vastness, territoriality, and sense of transience alive in the American West. In this collection legends, myths, tales, omens, folk horror, and science fiction explore the fantastical, the apocalyptic, the bizarre, the unknown, and the apocryphal origins and conclusions of life on the occidental side of the Continental Divide. In this collection, after the ‘what is’ comes the ‘what will be’, as acclaimed authors and emerging voices weave tales that push the boundaries of imagination: Ken Liu takes us to the frontiers of America and China in a stark tale of perseverance; Kate Bernheimer immerses us in the fairytale lands of modern celebrity; Benjamin Percy takes us hunting for deer and connection in eastern Oregon; Yuri Herrera grants us insight on our future overlords; Tessa Fontaine places us in-between with a monster and a question; Dominique Dickey chases familiar ghosts; and Willy Vlautin takes us on the wild ride that is a winning streak. Accompanied by a foreword from This Side of the Divide alum, and author of The Forbidden City, Vanessa Hua, these twenty-five pieces of new lore excavate the beauty, the uncertainty, the longing, the bitter interactions and stark truths; the strong people and vivid places that have shaped, and will continue to shape the West until the end of days.

**THE HORSE - THE NEW NOVEL FROM WILLY VLAUTIN - IS AVAILABLE TO PREORDER NOW**SOON TO BE A NETFLIX FILM STARRING VANESSA KIRBY'Pacey and visceral.' Sunday Times'Imbued with the noirish urgency of a page-turning thriller.' Irish Times'A tear-struck revelation.' MEGAN ABBOTTBetween looking after her brother, working two low-paid jobs, and trying to take part-time college classes, Lynette is dangerously tired. Every penny she's earned for years, she's put into savings, trying to scrape together enough to take out a mortgage on the house she rents with her mother. Finally becoming a homeowner in their rapidly gentrifying Portland neighbourhood could offer Lynette the kind of freedoms she's never had. But, when the plan is derailed, Lynette must embark on a desperate odyssey of hope and anguish.Written with all Willy Vlautin's characteristic and heart-wrenching empathy, The Night Always Comes holds up a mirror to a society which leaves too many people only a step away from falling between the cracks.What readers are saying:'Amazing . . . Vlautin hit the nail on the head with this. I could not stop thinking about the characters and where the story would take them.''WOW. This book hit me hard . . . I was on the edge of my seat.''The book pulls you into the story and you can't wait to find out what happens next.''Fabulous . . . part suspenseful action and part deep character study.

"Willy Vlautin is not known for happy endings, but there's something here that defies the downward pull. In the end, Lynette is pure life force: fierce and canny and blazing through a city that no longer has space for her, and it's all Portland's loss."--Portland Monthly MagazineAward-winning author Willy Vlautin explores the impact of trickle-down greed and opportunism of gentrification on ordinary lives in this scorching novel that captures the plight of a young woman pushed to the edge as she fights to secure a stable future for herself and her family.Barely thirty, Lynette is exhausted. Saddled with bad credit and juggling multiple jobs, some illegally, she's been diligently working to buy the house she lives in with her mother and developmentally disabled brother Kenny. Portland's housing prices have nearly quadrupled in fifteen years, and the owner is giving them a good deal. Lynette knows it's their last best chance to own their own home--and obtain the security they've never had. While she has enough for the down payment, she needs her mother to cover the rest of the asking price. But a week before they're set to sign the loan papers, her mother gets cold feet and reneges on her promise, pushing Lynette to her limits to find the money they need.Set over two days and two nights, The Night Always Comes follows Lynette's frantic search--an odyssey of hope and anguish that will bring her face to face with greedy rich men and ambitious hustlers, those benefiting and those left behind by a city in the throes of a transformative boom. As her desperation builds and her pleas for help go unanswered, Lynette makes a dangerous choice that sets her on a precarious, frenzied spiral. In trying to save her family's future, she is plunged into the darkness of her past, and forced to confront the reality of her life.A heart wrenching portrait of a woman hungry for security and a home in a rapidly changing city, The Night Always Comes raises the difficult questions we are often too afraid to ask ourselves: What is the price of gentrification, and how far are we really prepared to go to achieve the American Dream? Is the American dream even attainable for those living at the edges? Or for too many of us, is it only a hollow promise?

'Pacey and visceral.' Sunday Times'Imbued with the noirish urgency of a page-turning thriller.' Irish Times'A tear-struck revelation.' MEGAN ABBOTTBetween looking after her brother, working two low-paid jobs, and trying to take part-time college classes, Lynette is dangerously tired. Every penny she's earned for years, she's put into savings, trying to scrape together enough to take out a mortgage on the house she rents with her mother. Finally becoming a homeowner in their rapidly gentrifying Portland neighbourhood could offer Lynette the kind of freedoms she's never had. But, when the plan is derailed, Lynette must embark on a desperate odyssey of hope and anguish.Written with all Willy Vlautin's characteristic and heart-wrenching empathy, The Night Always Comes holds up a mirror to a society which leaves too many people only a step away from falling between the cracks.What readers are saying:'Amazing . . . Vlautin hit the nail on the head with this. I could not stop thinking about the characters and where the story would take them.''WOW. This book hit me hard . . . I was on the edge of my seat.''The book pulls you into the story and you can't wait to find out what happens next.''Fabulous . . . part suspenseful action and part deep character study.

"Mörkret som faller är verkligen en lysande roman!" Rasmus Landström, Arbetarbladet. "Inte förvånande att flera av hans romaner både prisats och filmatiserats." David Björklund, BTJ. "Årets bok har redan kommit!" Litterära händelser. "Betyg 5 av 5", Johan Erlandsson, Kommunalarbetaren. Willy Vlautins roman Mörkret som faller i översättning av Andreas Vesterlund. Willy Vlautins nya är en varm och livsnära berättelse, därtill en riktig bladvändare. Det handlar om trettioåriga Lynette som kämpar för att skapa en stabil framtid för sig och sin familj. I det USA som är "the land of the free" saknar Lynette fullkomligt skyddsnät. Hon är trängd från alla håll och har inget att falla tillbaka på. Ändå försöker hon lyckas med det omöjliga - att snabbt få fram alla de pengar som behövs för ordna upp den akuta situationen. Med sin nya bok har Valutin skapat en glödande roman. Förtvivlad, hjärtskärande, stark. "Jag kan inte minnas att jag någonsin brytt mig så mycket om en romanfigur som jag bryr mig om Lynette. Du kommer aldrig att glömma henne och inte heller den vanskliga värld hon navigerar genom." Richard Russo (författaren till Empire Falls) "Lynette fångar mig från första sidan och får mig att hålla andan minst hundra gånger innan jag läst den sista." Megan Abbott (författaren till You Will Know Me) "Efter att ha läst Willy Vlautin går jag omkring mer sårbar, mer öppen än jag var tidigare. Och samtidigt tuffare." Kae Tempest (Let Them Eat Chaos) "Mörkret som faller är en nagelbitare om att överleva i sin vardag. En makalös roman som blöder på riktigt, hugger djupt och ändå skänker just den rätta mängden hopp." Ivy Pochoda (författaren till Visitation Street) "Med Mörkret som faller träffar Vlautin högvattenmärket. Hans gestalter är så äkta att när de blöder hamnar några droppar på mig." Daniel Woodrell (författaren till Winter's Bone) Vlautin debuterade med romanen The Motel Life (utgiven på svenska på Bakhåll med titeln Motellivet), tätt följd av Northline (Norrut), Lean on Pete, The Free (De fria) och Don't Skip Out On Me (Sviker dig aldrig). Boken som nu kommer, The Night Always Comes (Mörkret som faller) är hans sjätte roman på femton år. Och den hyllas redan nu som hans hittills bästa. Willy Vlautins roman Mörkret som faller. Översättning Andreas Vesterlund. ISBN 978-91-7742-557-1. Högkvalitetspapper, sydda ark, mjuka pärmar med flikar. 224 sidor.

"Willy Vlautin is not known for happy endings, but there's something here that defies the downward pull. In the end, Lynette is pure life force: fierce and canny and blazing through a city that no longer has space for her, and it's all Portland's loss. -- Portland Monthly MagazineAward-winning author Willy Vlautin explores the impact of trickle-down greed and opportunism of gentrification on ordinary lives in this scorching novel that captures the plight of a young woman pushed to the edge as she fights to secure a stable future for herself and her family.Barely thirty, Lynette is exhausted. Saddled with bad credit and juggling multiple jobs, some illegally, she's been diligently working to buy the house she lives in with her mother and developmentally disabled brother Kenny. Portland's housing prices have nearly quadrupled in fifteen years, and the owner is giving them a good deal. Lynette knows it's their last best chance to own their own home--and obtain the security they've never had. While she has enough for the down payment, she needs her mother to cover the rest of the asking price. But a week before they're set to sign the loan papers, her mother gets cold feet and reneges on her promise, pushing Lynette to her limits to find the money they need.Set over two days and two nights, The Night Always Comes follows Lynette's frantic search--an odyssey of hope and anguish that will bring her face to face with greedy rich men and ambitious hustlers, those benefiting and those left behind by a city in the throes of a transformative boom. As her desperation builds and her pleas for help go unanswered, Lynette makes a dangerous choice that sets her on a precarious, frenzied spiral. In trying to save her family's future, she is plunged into the darkness of her past, and forced to confront the reality of her life.A heart wrenching portrait of a woman hungry for security and a home in a rapidly changing city, The Night Always Comes raises the difficult questions we are often too afraid to ask ourselves: What is the price of gentrification, and how far are we really prepared to go to achieve the American Dream? Is the American dream even attainable for those living at the edges? Or for too many of us, is it only a hollow promise?

A FINALIST FOR THE PEN/FAULKNER AWARD An ALA Notable BookFrom award-winning author Willy Vlautin, comes this moving novel about a young ranch hand who goes on a quest to become a champion boxer to prove his worth. Horace Hopper is a half-Paiute, half-Irish ranch hand who wants to be somebody. He's spent most of his life on the ranch of his kindly guardians, Mr. and Mrs. Reese, herding sheep alone in the mountains. But while the Reeses treat him like a son, Horace can't shake the shame he feels from being abandoned by his parents. He decides to leave the only loving home he's known to prove his worth by training to become a boxer. Mr. Reese is holding on to a way of life that is no longer sustainable. He's a seventy-two-year-old rancher with a bad back. He's not sure how he'll keep things going without Horace but he knows the boy must find his own way. Coming down from the mountains of Nevada to the unforgiving desert heat of Tucson, Horace finds a trainer and begins to get fights. His journey to become a champion brings him to boxing rings of Mexico and finally, to the seedy streets of Las Vegas, where Horace learns he can't change who he is or outrun his destiny. Willy Vlautin writes from America's soul, chronicling the lives of those who are downtrodden and forgotten with profound tenderness. Don't Skip Out on Me is a beautiful, wrenching story about one man's search for identity and belonging that will make you consider those around you differently.

FINALIST FOR THE 2019 PEN/FAULKNER AWARDMeet Horace Hopper, a twenty-one-year-old farm hand in Tonopah, Nevada, who works for Mr Reece and his wife, the nearest thing he's had to family in years. But Horace, half-white half-Paiute Indian, dreams of bigger things.

Fifteen-year-old Charley Thompson wants a home; food on the table; a high school he can attend for more than part of a year; and some structure to his life. But as the son of a single father working at warehouses across the Pacific Northwest, he's been pretty much on his own for some time. Lean on Pete opens as he and his father arrive in Portland, Oregon and Charley takes a stables job, illegally, at the local race track. Once part of a vibrant racing network, Portland Meadows is now seemingly the last haven for washed up jockeys and knackered horses, but it's there that Charley meets Pete, an old horse who becomes his companion as he's forced to try to make his own way in the world.

Willy Vlautin's award-winning novel Lean on Pete, a moving and compassionate story about a fifteen-year old-boy's unlikely connection to a failing racehorse as he struggles to find a place to call home--now a major motion picture from A24, the studio behind Moonlight and Lady Bird, starring Charlie Plummer, Chlo Sevigny, with Travis Fimmel and Steve Buscemi, and directed by Andrew Haigh (45 Years, Looking)."Lean on Pete riveted me. Reading it, I was heartbroken and moved; enthralled and convinced. This is serious American literature." -- Cheryl Strayed, OregonianFifteen-year-old Charley Thompson wants a home, food on the table, and a high school he can attend for more than part of a year. But as the son of a single father working in warehouses across the Pacific Northwest, Charley's been pretty much on his own. When tragic events leave him homeless weeks after their move to Portland, Oregon, Charley seeks refuge in the tack room of a run-down horse track. Charley's only comforts are his friendship with a failing racehorse named Lean on Pete and a photograph of his only known relative. In an increasingly desperate circumstance, Charley will head east, hoping to find his aunt who had once lived a thousand miles away in Wyoming--but the journey to find her will be a perilous one.In Lean on Pete, Willy Vlautin reveals the lives and choices of American youth like Charley Thompson who were failed by those meant to protect them and who were never allowed the chance to just be a kid.

Om man får tro nationalsången är USA de frias land - the land of the free. Läser man Willy Vlautin får man både en fördjupad bild och anledning att fundera några extra gånger över den så vackert besjungna friheten. Vlautin debuterade 2006 med romanen The Motel Life (på svenska Motellivet), tätt följd av Northline (Norrut), Lean on Pete och The Free (De fria). Det här är hans femte roman - på elva år - Don't Skip Out On Me (Sviker dig aldrig). I den nya boken berättar Vlautin om unge Horace Hopper, till häften vit, till hälften paiuteindian, som drömmer om en karriär som proffsboxare. Horace arbetar på en ranch i Tonopah, Nevada, några timmar norr om Las Vegas. På ranchen föder man främst upp får, långt ute i det ödsliga, karga landskapet. Horace har blivit något av en högerhand åt ranchägaren Eldon Reese, men nu har han tröttnat på farmarlivet. Han vill ut i världen. Han tänker bli världsmästare i lättviktsboxning... Och det är bara att konstatera att Vlautin har lyckats igen - ännu en gång har han skildrat en verklighet som är så stor och sann att den bränns in på bara skinnet. Han kan det här. Han kan se människorna i allt han skildrar. Han ser individerna. De på djupet intressanta personerna. Han berättar om särpräglade öden och det han berättar är insiktsfullt, upplysande, gripande och äkta.

Opening like an early Tom Waits barstool-tale, The Motel Life tells the story of two brothers, Frank and Jerry Lee. Taking to the road in an attempt to escape the hit and run accident caused by Jerry Lee, the novel goes back to tell the story of their unhappy lives. With intense feeling and compassion, Vlautin explores the frustrations and failed dreams of the two brothers - one a natural storyteller, the other an artist - and renders perfectly the sense of entrapment they feel. Will the kid's death shock them out of their torpor or send them ever deeper into trouble? Can Annie James, a girl from their past, offer them any sort of redemption, however slim?Interspersed with drawings that come to form an integral part of the narrative, The Motel Life is a poetic, moving, beautifully naïve and tragic fictional debut. Alongside such seminal works as Annie Proulx's Postcards, Raymond Carver's What we talk about when we talk about love and Denis Johnson's Jesus's Son, it should come to be seen as a classic of downbeat American prose.