{"title":"Local Author Willy Vlautin","description":null,"products":[{"product_id":"the-night-always-comes","title":"The Night Always Comes","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eDon't miss the film streaming now on Netflix!\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\"Willy Vlautin is not known for happy endings, but there's something here that defies the downward pull. In the end, Lynette is pure life force: fierce and canny and blazing through a city that no longer has space for her, and it's all Portland's loss.\"\u003c\/strong\u003e--\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cem\u003ePortland Monthly Magazine\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eAward-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.\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eBarely thirty, Lynette is exhausted. Saddled with bad credit and juggling multiple jobs, some illegally, she's been diligently working to buy the house she lives in with her mother and developmentally disabled brother Kenny. Portland's housing prices have nearly quadrupled in fifteen years, and the owner is giving them a good deal. Lynette knows it's their last best chance to own their own home--and obtain the security they've never had. While she has enough for the down payment, she needs her mother to cover the rest of the asking price. But a week before they're set to sign the loan papers, her mother gets cold feet and reneges on her promise, pushing Lynette to her limits to find the money they need.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eSet over two days and two nights, \u003cem\u003eThe Night Always Comes\u003c\/em\u003e 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.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eA heart wrenching portrait of a woman hungry for security and a home in a rapidly changing city, \u003cem\u003eThe Night Always Comes\u003c\/em\u003e 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?\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"HarperCollins","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":45648396189916,"sku":"9780063035096","price":17.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0689\/4845\/9740\/files\/9780063035096_ce565.jpg?v=1730684691"},{"product_id":"dont-skip-out-on-me","title":"Don't Skip Out on Me","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eA \u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eFINALIST FOR THE PEN\/FAULKNER AWARD\u003c\/strong\u003e \u003cbr\u003eAn ALA Notable Book\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eFrom award-winning author Willy Vlautin, comes this moving novel about a young ranch hand who goes on a quest to become a champion boxer to prove his worth. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eHorace Hopper is a half-Paiute, half-Irish ranch hand who wants to be somebody. He's spent most of his life on the ranch of his kindly guardians, Mr. and Mrs. Reese, herding sheep alone in the mountains. But while the Reeses treat him like a son, Horace can't shake the shame he feels from being abandoned by his parents. He decides to leave the only loving home he's known to prove his worth by training to become a boxer. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eMr. Reese is holding on to a way of life that is no longer sustainable. He's a seventy-two-year-old rancher with a bad back. He's not sure how he'll keep things going without Horace but he knows the boy must find his own way. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eComing down from the mountains of Nevada to the unforgiving desert heat of Tucson, Horace finds a trainer and begins to get fights. His journey to become a champion brings him to boxing rings of Mexico and finally, to the seedy streets of Las Vegas, where Horace learns he can't change who he is or outrun his destiny. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eWilly Vlautin writes from America's soul, chronicling the lives of those who are downtrodden and forgotten with profound tenderness. \u003cem\u003eDon't Skip Out on Me\u003c\/em\u003e is a beautiful, wrenching story about one man's search for identity and belonging that will make you consider those around you differently.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"HarperCollins","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":45649055219932,"sku":"9780062684479","price":18.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0689\/4845\/9740\/files\/9780062684479_ccc35.jpg?v=1732128422"},{"product_id":"lean-on-pete","title":"Lean on Pete","description":"\u003cp\u003eWilly Vlautin's award-winning novel \u003cem\u003eLean on Pete, \u003c\/em\u003ea moving and compassionate story about a fifteen-year old-boy's unlikely connection to a failing racehorse as he struggles to find a place to call home--now a major motion picture from A24, the studio behind Moonlight and Lady Bird, starring Charlie Plummer, Chloë Sevigny, with Travis Fimmel and Steve Buscemi, and directed by Andrew Haigh (\u003cem\u003e45 Years\u003c\/em\u003e, \u003cem\u003e Looking\u003c\/em\u003e).\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\"\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cem\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eLean on Pete\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e riveted me. Reading it, I was heartbroken and moved; enthralled and convinced. This is serious American literature.\"\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e--Cheryl Strayed, \u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cem\u003eOregonian\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eFifteen-year-old Charley Thompson wants a home, food on the table, and a high school he can attend for more than part of a year. But as the son of a single father working in warehouses across the Pacific Northwest, Charley's been pretty much on his own. When tragic events leave him homeless weeks after their move to Portland, Oregon, Charley seeks refuge in the tack room of a run-down horse track. Charley's only comforts are his friendship with a failing racehorse named Lean on Pete and a photograph of his only known relative. In an increasingly desperate circumstance, Charley will head east, hoping to find his aunt who had once lived a thousand miles away in Wyoming--but the journey to find her will be a perilous one.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn \u003cem\u003eLean on Pete\u003c\/em\u003e, Willy Vlautin reveals the lives and choices of American youth like Charley Thompson who were failed by those meant to protect them and who were never allowed the chance to just be a kid.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cem\u003e\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"HarperCollins","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":45649780211932,"sku":"9780061456534","price":16.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0689\/4845\/9740\/files\/9780061456534_0_Cover.jpg?v=1730684780"},{"product_id":"the-horse-paperback","title":"The Horse","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eWinner of the Joyce Carol Oates Prize \u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eFinalist for the 2025 Oregon Book Award \u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\"Willy Vlautin writes about people overlooked by society and overlooked by literature. In \u003cem\u003eThe Horse\u003c\/em\u003e, he tells the story of a tenderhearted man who has a steady talent and a crushing addiction. It is both a work of extraordinary compassion and a really great novel.\" -- Ann Patchett, \u003cem\u003eNew York Times \u003c\/em\u003ebestselling author of\u003cem\u003e Tom Lake\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\"A moving tale of suffering and redemption, \u003cem\u003eThe Horse\u003c\/em\u003e portrays the immense gravity of what it takes to be human in tough times, and the elusive grace that might just be grasped from music, animals, and memory.\" -- Geraldine Brooks, \u003cem\u003eNew York Times \u003c\/em\u003ebestselling author of \u003cem\u003eHorse\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eAward-winning author Willy Vlautin explores loneliness, art, regret, and hard-won empathy in this poignant novel--his most personal to date--that captures the life of a journeyman musician unable to escape the tragedies of his past.\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eAl Ward lives on an isolated mining claim in the high desert of central Nevada fifty miles from the nearest town. A grizzled man in his sixties, he survives on canned soup, instant coffee, and memories of his ex-wife, friends and family he's lost, and his life as a touring musician. Hampered by insomnia, bouts of anxiety, and a chronic lethargy that keeps him from moving back to town, Al finds himself teetering on the edge of madness and running out of reasons to go on--until a horse arrives on his doorstep: nameless, blind, and utterly helpless.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eAl hopes the horse will vanish as mysteriously as he appeared. Yet the animal remains, leaving him in a conundrum. Is the animal real, or a phantom conjured from imagination? As Al contemplates the horse's existence--and what, if anything, he can do--his thoughts are interspersed with memories, from the moment his mother's part-time boyfriend gifts him a 1959 butterscotch blonde Telecaster, to the day his travels begin. He joins various bands--all who perform his songs once they discover his talent-playing casinos, truck stops, clubs, and bars. He falls in love, and finds pockets of companionship and minor success along the way. Never close to stardom or financial success, he continues as a journeyman for decades until alcoholism and a heartbreaking tragedy lead him to the solitude of the barren Nevada desert.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eA poignant meditation on addiction, heartbreak, and the reality of life on the road in smalltime bands, \u003cem\u003eThe Horse\u003c\/em\u003e is a beautiful, haunting tale from an author working at the height of his powers.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"HarperCollins","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46614777037020,"sku":"9780063346598","price":17.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0689\/4845\/9740\/files\/9780063346598_d6f58.jpg?v=1749068273"},{"product_id":"pre-order-the-left-and-the-lucky-a-novel","title":"The Left and the Lucky:  A Novel ~ 2025 Two Rivers Top 100","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"productRowBody___XM7bE\"\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"width-100\"\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"contentFrame___bYIJX\"\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"contentMain___bTlvE\"\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"width-100\"\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"contentFrame___bYIJX\"\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"contentMain___bTlvE\"\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"markupDisplay___nyG3v\"\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"allNotes___Kt2vZ\"\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"MuiPaper-root MuiPaper-elevation MuiPaper-rounded MuiPaper-elevation0 MuiAccordion-root MuiAccordion-rounded Mui-expanded css-179qxfx\"\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"MuiAccordionDetails-root css-l9xe8y\"\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"MuiFormGroup-root css-1ytbthu\"\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"markupNoteBorder___z5MdM\"\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\"One of America's greatest storytellers.\"-Jonathan Evison\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"I loved this novel so much, though it broke my heart again and again. No one anywhere writes with such power and such stark beauty about American desperation and want, American loneliness and heartache.\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eWe need Willy Vlautin like we needed Johnny Cash, like we needed Larry McMurtry—he’s essential and every book he writes proves it all over again.\u003c\/strong\u003e\" -Joe Hill\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"descriptionPanel___wCiv7\"\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"acc-font-no-hover medium-small-font bold descriptionHeader___aNBPJ\"\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"MuiGrid-root MuiGrid-container css-1b1jvye\"\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"panelContent___B_vGb\"\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eThe acclaimed Willy Vlautin returns with a heartbreaking and tender novel about two young brothers, the vicissitudes of fate, and unexpected connection—a beautiful and bittersweet portrait that illuminates the power of friendship and how it can save lives in multiple ways.\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eEddie Wilkens is a workaholic house painter in his early forties. His wife has left him to her regret, and his main employee, Houston, is a loafer and scoundrel who barely shows up for work. Unassuming and self-reliant, Eddie is thoughtful man who rarely gets angry, despite life's frequent provocations, but he is ruled by a guilt that he has carried for nearly twenty years.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eNext door, a woman and her two sons move in with her frail and aging mother. The youngest boy, Russell, eight-years-old, is quiet and small for his age and lives in constant terror of his increasingly lost and troubled fifteen-year-old brother, Curtis. As their mother struggles to keep the family together and the grandmother’s health begins to faulter they find themselves unable to protect Russell and themselves from Curtis’s cruelty, which threatens to explode in frenetic violence.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThough neither knows it, Russell and Eddie will become each other’s saving grace.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWhile Russell’s home life disintegrates he begins waiting in Eddie’s backyard for him to get off work. Eddie offers the boy small acts of kindness: he feeds him, gives him jobs to do, listens to his dreams of escape, and offers Russell a glimpse into a world of hope and humor. A world of misfit painters, a derelict muscle car, an old dog, and the comradery and companionship of Eddie and his crew. In return, Russell gives Eddie a reason to carry on and helps him lay to rest the guilt that has plagued him for half of his life.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eTogether, this makeshift father and son begin to build better life, daring to trade the bleakness and cynicism around them for hope and friendship.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFrom a writer revered for his thoughtful and compassionate portrayal of realistic American life,\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem\u003eThe Left and the Lucky\u003c\/em\u003e is a heartbreakingly honest examination of how circumstance shapes our lives, and how the luck of finding someone who needs us can transcend bitter loneliness and prevent us from giving up on dreaming of a better life.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"descriptionPanel___wCiv7\"\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"acc-font-no-hover medium-small-font bold descriptionHeader___aNBPJ\"\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"MuiGrid-root MuiGrid-container css-1b1jvye\"\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"panelContent___B_vGb\"\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"flex\"\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"relative\"\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eWilly Vlautin\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003eis the author of the novels\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem\u003eThe Motel Life, Northline, Lean on Pete, The Free, Don’t Skip Out on Me, The Night Always Comes\u003c\/em\u003e, and\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem\u003eThe Horse\u003c\/em\u003e. He is the founding member of the bands Richmond Fontaine and The Delines.\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"HarperCollins","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47063132340444,"sku":"9780063346635","price":26.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0689\/4845\/9740\/files\/9780063346635_03b0d.jpg?v=1761057490"}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0689\/4845\/9740\/collections\/Vlautin_1_THE_HORSE_by_Bobby_Abrahamson_1.jpg?v=1784835429","url":"https:\/\/tworiversweirdsisters.com\/collections\/local-author-willy-vlautin.oembed","provider":"Two Rivers \u0026 Weird Sisters","version":"1.0","type":"link"}