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The Night Always Comes A NovelStock informationGeneral Fields
Special Fields
DescriptionAward-winning author Willy Vlautin explores the impact of trickle-down greed and opportunism of gentrification on ordinary lives in this scorching novel that captures the plight of a young woman pushed to the edge as she fights to secure a stable future for herself and her family. Set over two days and two nights, The Night Always Comes follows Lynette's frantic search--an odyssey of hope and anguish that will bring her face to face with greedy rich men and ambitious hustlers, those benefiting and those left behind by a city in the throes of a transformative boom. As her desperation builds and her pleas for help go unanswered, Lynette makes a dangerous choice that sets her on a precarious, frenzied spiral. In trying to save her family's future, she is plunged into the darkness of her past, and forced to confront the reality of her life. A heart wrenching portrait of a woman hungry for security and a home in a rapidly changing city, The Night Always Comes raises the difficult questions we are often too afraid to ask ourselves: What is the price of gentrification, and how far are we really prepared to go to achieve the American Dream? Is the American dream even attainable for those living at the edges? Or for too many of us, is it only a hollow promise?
Reviews“Vlautin offers a stunning, heartbreaking study of one woman’s struggle against fate and circumstance in an America that’s left her behind… This gritty page-turner sings with pitch-perfect prose, and [protagonist] Lynette’s desperation is palpable. Vlautin has achieved a brilliant synthesis of Raymond Carver and Jim Thompson.”
Publishers Weekly(starred review) "The story resonates, with characters we come to feel we know and dialogue that is so natural we hear it, not just read it....This is literary art that will keep readers in their seats until the last page."
"He is as far reaching as he is precise. He writes hard, delicate stories about things that are true. His characters cut me so close to the bone, I feel like they peel a layer of skin off me and I walk around after reading Willy Vlautin, more vulnerable, more open than I was before. And all the tougher for it."
On Connection “I finished reading this novel dripping with admiration for Willy Vlautin and the tough wonder he has brought forth. The Night Always Comes hits the high-water mark; there is skillful and beautiful objectivity to the writing, characters so real that when they bleed you get a few drops on your sleeve, and a story of economic want and desperation and heart.”
Winter’s Bone
The Maid’s Version “Emotionally wrenching.… 'You never give up and you've got a good heart, a damaged heart, but a good heart.’ We concur, of course, and race to the end to see if good hearts can maybe, just this once, make a difference. With Vlautin, you never know for sure.”
Booklist (starred review) "The Night Always Comes is a masterclass of scope and scale - a nail-biting thriller of everyday survival. Relatable, terrifying, impassioned, and compassionate, Vlautin's latest will elevate you on one page and tear your heart out on the next. A marvelous novel that bleeds real, cuts deep, and offers just the right dose of hope."
These Girls
Visitation Street “Willy Vlautin’s The Night Always Comes is a tear-struck revelation—both epic and timely, intimate and clear-eyed. Only Vlautin could cross the harrowing emotional richness of A Woman Under the Influence with the breakneck desperation of the greatest of film noir. Lynette will have you from the first page and put you to the test a hundred times before the last. You’ll finish knowing you’ll never forget her.”
Give Me Your Hand
You Will Know Me “This is a fast and worthy read that you may end up devouring in a few sittings — it's that propulsive. "
“[Vlautin’s] book plays out like a modern noir take on a Tennessee Williams play, its desperate characters harboring old resentments, its hard-luck heroine settling scores throughout a long, bloody night in her hometown of Portland, Oregon…. Vlautin has written a soulful thriller for the age of soulless gentrification.”
Kirkus Reviews (starred review) "Remarkable, real, and tender, The Night Always Comes is a story of America, of the disenfranchised and the still hopeful, of a world littered with artifacts and so little opportunity. Willy Vlautin's characters blaze with honesty, fighting for their slim chance at the American dream, leaving us to wonder if it was all a charade. An amazing achievement."
The Butterfly Girl
The Child Finder “The trick to writing a great thriller is both simple and very, very difficult: make us care about the person whose life is in jeopardy. I can’t remember the last time I worried myself sick about a fictional character the way I did about Lynette in Willy Vlautin’s terrific, big-hearted new novel The Night Always Comes. You won’t soon forget either her or the fraught world she so courageously navigates.”
Empire Falls
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