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, intent on making a new life for 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 Paul Newman, and the characters he played. But as life crawls on and she finds work, small acts of kindness start to reveal themselves to her, 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 contemporary...

" Vlautin] unearths a world Steinbeck would have recognised...where the American underclass still resides. Lean On Pete is an archetypal American novel, Huck Finn for the crystal-meth generation."
--Independent Extra

Author Willy Vlautin--"a major realist talent"(Seattle Post Intelligencer) who is often compared to Raymond Carver, John Steinbeck, and Denis Johnson--returns with Lean on Pete, the story of a 15-year old boy struggling to make his way to a long lost aunt, who just might give him a home. In the words of author Mark Billingham, "Vlautin is...

Award-winning author of The Motel Life, Northline and Lean on Pete, Willy Vlautin demonstrates his extraordinary talent for confronting issues facing modern America, illuminated through the lives of three memorable characters who are looking for a way out of their financial, familial, and existential crises in The Free.

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...