Willy Vlautin is the author of the novels The Motel Life, Northline, Lean on Pete, The Free, Don't Skip Out on Me, The Night Always Comes, and The Horse. He is the founding member of the bands Richmond Fontaine and The Delines.
"Willy Vlautin has been literature's best-kept secret for far too
long. He may well be our own Steinbeck, but with a haunting
steel-guitar sensibility all his own." - Shelf Awareness
"Vlautin's sparse, plan sentences are well-matched to the brusque
world he depicts. At the same time, his compassion for his
characters never wavers." - Sunday Times (London)
"Vlautin's latest novel...inches ever closer to a literary
equivalent of his unrivalled ability to make us believe in the
characters in his songs long after they've stopped believing in
themselves." - Yorkshire Evening Post
"An emotionally wrenching story of a ranch hand who dreams of being
a championship boxer and an elderly couple trying to hold on in
central Nevada." - Oregonian
"Vlautin's prose is deceptively simple, his clipped descriptions
loaded with meaning. The narrative is as unsparing as Hopper's
fights, but what stays standing is a profound sense of hope, a hope
that drives society's downtrodden and provides the theme for much
of Vlautin's work." - Financial Times
"Riveting...Vlautin's colorful characters inhabit both lonely
Nevada ranch landscapes and gritty city scenes. Their world is
painted with unflinching reality and raw emotion, yet also with
compassion and heart, creating a compelling read." - Christian
Science Monitor
"In this climate, a writer like Willy Vlautin seems like one of the
last souls left standing on trad-narrative's working-class
battlements. He's the literary version of a Neil Young or a Tom
Petty, bearing a ragged standard for empathy, compassion and
decency, defending notions of the story as a sorting office for the
soul. In other words, he's a throwback to a generation of novelists
who still championed the underclass and promoted socialist values
in fiction: everyone from John Steinbeck to Nelson Algren, or, more
latterly, William Kennedy or Annie Proulx." - Irish Times
"[T]here's a distinct sense of foreboding in the air as Vlautin
slowly lets this poignant tale unwind to its inevitable,
heartbreaking conclusion. A powerful, haunting portrayal of lives
rendered in unflinching, understated prose." - Kirkus Reviews
"(The book is) written in the sort of scorched, bare-bones prose,
stripped of metaphors and similes, that has won him fans such as
Roddy Doyle, Donna Tartt and Colm Tóibín." - The Guardian
"Vlautin is on to something about what's wrong with America, and
with many Americans, especially in the age of Trump..." - Spectator
UK
"(Willy Vlautin) is the literary version of a Neil Young or a Tom
Petty, bearing a ragged standard for empathy, compassion and
decency, defending notions of the story as a sorting office for the
soul. " - Irish Times
'Willy Vlautin is the poet laureate of the downtrodden and
disenfranchised underclass of American society, detailing with real
empathy and insight the daily struggle of his characters in modern
society." - Big Issue
"The world needs more Willy Vlautin, and Dont' Skip Out on Me is
his best novel yet." - Jonathan Evison, author of This is Your
Life, Harriet Chance and The Revised Fundamentals of Caregiving
"No one anywhere writes as beautifully about people whose stories
stay close to the dirt. Willy Vlautin is a secular--and thus real
and profoundly useful--saint." - Lidia Yuknavitch, author of The
Book of Joan
"Magnificent.... Willy Vlautin is now one of America's great
writers." - Roddy Doyle
|
Ask a Question About this Product More... |
|
