Showing results by author "Willy Vlautin" in All Categories

Meet Horace Hopper, a 21-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. Leaving behind the farm and its fragile stability, he heads south to reinvent himself as the Mexican boxer Hector Hidalgo. Slowly, painfully, the possibility emerges that his dreams might not just be the delusions of a lost soul. But at what cost, and what of those he's left behind?

Eddie Wilkens is a workaholic house painter in his early 40s. Though neither knows it, Russell and Eddie will become each other's saving grace. Russell begins waiting in Eddie's backyard for him to get off work. Eddie offers the boy small acts of kindness. 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 a better life, daring to trade the bleakness and cynicism around them for hope and friendship.

Al Ward lives on an isolated mining claim in the high desert of central Nevada 50 miles from the nearest town. A grizzled man in his 60s, 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.

Fifteen-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.

Between 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.

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.

With "echoes of Of Mice and Men" (The Bookseller, UK), The Motel Life explores the frustrations and failed dreams of two Nevada brothers - on the run after a hit-and-run accident - who, forgotten by society, and short on luck and hope, desperately cling to the edge of modern life.

Fleeing Las Vegas and her abusive boyfriend, Allison Johnson moves to Reno but finds herself haunted by the mistakes of her past and lacking any self-belief. Her only comfort seems to come from the imaginary conversations she has with her hero, Paul Newman. But, as life crawls on, small acts of kindness do start to reveal themselves, and slowly the chance of a new life begins to emerge. Full of memorable characters and imbued with a beautiful sense of yearning, Northline is an extraordinary portrait of small-town America and an emotional tour de force.

Lancinante storia di un uomo alla ricerca della propria identità e del proprio posto nel mondo, sullo sfondo di un’America ostile e inospitale. Nevada, USA. Horace Hopper è un giovane di origini per metà indiane Paiute e per metà irlandesi, con il sogno di diventare qualcuno. Ha trascorso la maggior parte della vita nel ranch dei suoi tutori, i Reese, lontano dalla civiltà, radunando pecore nelle montagne solitarie. I Reese lo trattano come un figlio, ma Horace non riesce a liberarsi dalla vergogna di essere stato abbandonato dai suoi veri genitori.

Leroy Kervin è un giovane soldato della Guardia Nazionale americana gravemente ferito in un agguato durante una missione in Iraq. Rientrato negli Stati Uniti e accolto in una casa famiglia per disabili, guarisce dalle ferite ma piomba in uno stato di inquietudine e incapacità di mettere a fuoco i ricordi. Afflitto dallo smarrimento e dagli incubi, in un raro momento di lucidità tenta il suicidio, fallendo.

Che differenza c'è tra ascoltare 45 ballate country, e leggere un libro che ne racconta in prosa la trama? Se l'autore è Willy Vlautin, verrebbe da dire, forse solo la modalità di ascolto. Eppure il risultato materializzato in questo "Verso nord" non è un concept album né tantomeno una croonerata baggiana sulle note lancinanti di una pedal steel, ma piuttosto un romanzo nella più autentica (e grande) tradizione americana.

Lynette ha poco tempo per non cedere alla sconfitta. Ad appena trent’anni, è già esausta. Eppure il suo sogno è modesto: comprare la casa in cui vive con la madre e il fratello e procurare loro quella sicurezza che non hanno mai avuto. Nella sua città, una Portland sempre più alla moda, i prezzi delle abitazioni in pochi anni sono più che raddoppiati, le case popolari sono state convertite in condomini prestigiosi, i negozi a gestione familiare rimpiazzati da boutique di lusso. È l’illusione del sogno americano: benessere per tutti.

Originariamente pubblicato negli Stati Uniti nel 2006, Motel Life ha segnato l’esordio nella narrativa di Willy Vlautin, al tempo già un rinomato musicista. Da allora il romanzo è stato tradotto in più di dieci lingue, è stato paragonato alla produzione di autori quali John Steinbeck, Raymond Carver, John Fante e Denis Johnson, e ha fatto guadagnare all’autore l’appellativo di Dylan dei vagabondi.