PublishedFaber Fiction, July 2024 |
ISBN9780571384761 |
FormatSoftcover, 224 pages |
Dimensions21.5cm × 13.5cm × 1.9cm |
'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.
'Tremendously compelling . . . as succinct and wrenching as a well-honed folk song.' - GUARDIAN'A bruised and beautiful instant classic.' BEN MYERS
Willy Vlautin's most personal novel yet - a poetic and deeply moving story about what it really takes to be a musician.
Sarah is the fiction buyer at Boffins and has a penchant for writing that is incisive and challenging, bonus points for complicated characters. Trained as a chef, Sarah enjoys all things food- be it a beautifully laid out cookbook, a crop of broad beans in her garden, or a holiday planned entirely around where to eat. When she’s not barracking for the Dockers or walking her dogs, she enjoys endlessly searching for Perth’s best coffee.
A washed-up country songwriter named Al is living on his own, in a cabin in the desert. He’s all but given up on life. One day, he finds a horse outside his door. It’s badly injured, half-blind and in need of help. Al knows there is no choice; he must help the animal. But in seeking help for the horse, he takes stock of his own life- his career, his loves lost, his successes and failures. A beautiful story of reckoning and redemption.
