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.
Willy Vlautin Ordre des livres
Willy Vlautin crée des récits profondément évocateurs qui explorent la vie des individus en marge de la société américaine. Son œuvre se caractérise par un réalisme brut, se concentrant sur les thèmes de la pauvreté, de la dépendance et des liens complexes qui unissent les gens, même dans leurs luttes. La prose de Vlautin capture l'essence brute de l'Ouest américain, dépeignant des personnages qui luttent avec des circonstances difficiles avec une honnêteté brute et sans concession. Malgré les difficultés auxquelles ses personnages sont confrontés, il existe un courant sous-jacent persistant de résilience et une recherche de connexion.







- 2024
- 2023
This Side of the Divide: New Lore of the American West
- 220pages
- 8 heures de lecture
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.
- 2021
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. 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.
- 2018
The writing is spare and straightforward...There is intensity in Vlautin's narration, and also beauty and power...Vlautin's major accomplishment lies in posing a damning question: How could we, as a society, have allowed this to happen? Seattle Times
- 2018
Don't Skip Out on Me
- 304pages
- 11 heures de lecture
Horace Hopper, raised on a Nevada sheep ranch by the caring Mr. and Mrs. Reese, grapples with feelings of inadequacy stemming from his mixed Paiute and Irish heritage. Despite their intentions to pass the ranch to him, Horace feels he doesn't belong and seeks to forge his own identity. Driven by a desire to prove himself, he leaves behind the only family he's known to pursue a career as a championship boxer, embarking on a journey of self-discovery and ambition.
- 2016
The Motel Life, English edition
- 224pages
- 8 heures de lecture
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.
- 2014
Motel Life, The
- 206pages
- 8 heures de lecture
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.
- 2014
The Free
- 274pages
- 10 heures de lecture
While serving in Iraq, veteran Leroy Kervin suffered a traumatic brain injury. Frustrated by the simplest daily routines, and unable to form new memories, he eventually attempts suicide. Lying in a coma, he retreats deep inside the memories locked in his mind. Freddie McCall works two jobs and still can't make ends meet. He's lost his wife and kids, and the house is next. Medical bills have buried him in debt, a situation that propels him to consider a lucrative - and dangerous - proposition. Pauline Hawkins is a nurse at the local hospital. Though she attends to others' needs with practical yet firm kindness, including her mentally ill elderly father, she remains emotionally removed. But a new patient, a young runaway, touches something deep and unexpected inside her.
- 2010
Allison wacht verletzt auf und erinnert sich an ihren Freund, der sie getreten hat. Im dritten Monat schwanger, packt sie ihre Sachen und flieht. Als Kellnerin muss sie ihr Baby zur Adoption freigeben. In ihrer Verzweiflung findet sie Trost in den Filmen von Paul Newman, die ihr Hoffnung geben.


