{"product_id":"the-free-a-novel-isbn-9780062276742","title":"The Free: A Novel","description":"\u003cp\u003eAward-winning author of \u003cem\u003eThe Motel Life\u003c\/em\u003e, \u003cem\u003eNorthline\u003c\/em\u003e and \u003cem\u003eLean on Pete\u003c\/em\u003e, 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 \u003cem\u003eThe Free\u003c\/em\u003e.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eWhile 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 memories locked in his mind. Freddie McCall works two jobs and still can't make ends meet. He's lost his wife and kids, and the house is next. Medical bills have buried him in debt, a situation that propels him to consider a lucrative—and dangerous—proposition. Pauline Hawkins is a nurse at the local hospital. Though she attends to others' needs with practical yet firm kindness, including her mentally ill elderly father, she remains emotionally removed. But a new patient, a young runaway, touches something deep and unexpected inside her.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe lives of these characters intersect as they look for meaning in desperate times. Heartbreaking and hopeful, \u003cem\u003eThe Free\u003c\/em\u003e is a testament to the resiliency of the human heart. \u003cem\u003eThe Free\u003c\/em\u003e also includes a P.S. Section (additional material in the back of the book) with interviews, insights, and more about the author. Vlautin is the founder of the alternative country band Richmond Fontaine and his debut novel, \u003cem\u003eThe Motel Life\u003c\/em\u003e, has been made into a film starring Emile Hirsch, Stephen Dorff, Dakota Fanning, and Kris Kristofferson.\u003c\/p\u003e | \u003cp\u003eIn his heartbreaking yet hopeful fourth novel, award-winning author Willy Vlautin demonstrates his extraordinary talent for illuminating the disquiet of modern American life, captured in the experiences of three memorable characters looking for meaning in distressing times.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eSeverely wounded in the Iraq war, Leroy Kervin has lived in a group home for eight years. Frustrated by the simplest daily routines, he finds his existence has become unbearable. An act of desperation helps him disappear deep into his mind, into a world of romance and science fiction, danger and adventure where he is whole once again.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eFreddie McCall, the night man at Leroy's group home, works two jobs yet still can't make ends meet. He's lost his wife and kids, and the house is next. Medical bills have buried him in debt, a situation that propels him to consider a lucrative—and dangerous—proposition.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003ePauline Hawkins, a nurse, cares for the sick and wounded, including Leroy. She also looks after her mentally ill elderly father. Yet she remains emotionally removed, until she meets a young runaway who touches something deep and unexpected inside her.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn crystalline prose, both beautiful and devastating, this \"major realist talent\" (\u003cem\u003eSeattle Post-Intelligencer\u003c\/em\u003e) considers the issues transforming ordinary people's lives—the cost of health care, the lack of economic opportunity, the devastating scars of war—creating an extraordinary contemporary portrait that is also a testament to the resiliency of the human heart.\u003c\/p\u003e | \u003cp\u003e“In \u003cem\u003eThe Free\u003c\/em\u003e, Willy Vlautin gives us a portrait of American life that is so hard and so heartbreaking that it should be unbearable, but it isn’t. The straightforward beauty of Vlautin’s writing, and the tender care he shows his characters, turns a story of struggle into indispensable reading. I couldn’t recommend it more highly.” - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eAnn Patchett\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“\u003cem\u003eThe Free\u003c\/em\u003e is a graceful portrayal of an underrepresented side of American life. Willy Vlautin never overreaches, or takes the easy road, and his words have the heft of permanence.” - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003ePatrick deWitt, author of The Sister Brothers\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“A portrait of American life that is so hard and so heartbreaking that it should be unbearable, but it isn’t. The straightforward beauty of Vlautin’s writing, and the tender care he shows his characters, turns a story of struggle into indispensable reading. I couldn’t recommend it more highly.” - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eAnn Patchett\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“This strong fourth novel from Portland singer\/songwriter and author Vlautin (\u003cem\u003eThe Motel Life\u003c\/em\u003e) follows three protagonists who find the strength to make the best of difficult situations….Despite the grim trajectory of Leroy’s story, Pauline and Freddie’s innate decency adds a refreshingly positive note to Vlautin’s character-driven novel.” - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003ePublishers Weekly\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“Few contemporary western writers tell the truth with the unerring eye of Willy Vlautin, a literary realist whose emotionally charged characters achieve that rarest of goals in fiction-to tell a great story, and \u003cem\u003eThe Free\u003c\/em\u003e is Vlautin at his best.” - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eCraig Johnson, author of the Walt Longmire Mysteries, the basis for A\u0026amp;E's hit series Longmire\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“Willy Vlautin writes novels about people all alone in the wind. His prose is direct and complex in its simplicity, and his stories are sturdy and bighearted and full of lives so shattered they shimmer.” - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eCheryl Strayed, The Oregonian\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“A heartbreaking but hopeful tale of three people navigating personal, physical and psychological crises.” - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eShelf Awareness\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“The characters in Willy Vlautin’s quietly brilliant new novel, \u003cem\u003eThe Free\u003c\/em\u003e, embody the embattled middle class: they’re wounded (physically, emotionally, financially), they’re just getting by, they’re hardworking.” - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eOmnivoracious\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“[Vlautin’s] gentle candour infuses his writing with an urgency that suits its hand-held filmic feel, and \u003cem\u003eThe Free\u003c\/em\u003e is like a Sundance contender.” - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eIrish Times\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“With heartbreaking yet hopeful prose Vlautin weaves together a brutally honest tale of pain and isolation in America....Vlautin’s novels cast a spotlight on the underclass and underbelly of this land and gives voice to those who may no longer have one.” - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eNew York Journal of Books\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“Vlautin is a writer with incredible heart, and \u003cem\u003eThe Free\u003c\/em\u003e is his best achievement yet, a profound look at characters living on the margins, honest people who have been hit hard by the dark realities of a difficult world.... What he does—so marvelously and with such poise—is give us quiet, seemingly banal moments that strike hard with meaning... Walking away from \u003cem\u003eThe Free\u003c\/em\u003e, I felt a renewed sense of humanity and hope. For someone prone to melancholy as I am, Vlautin’s books are a balm, a salve.” - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eLos Angeles Review of Books\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“\u003cem\u003eThe Free\u003c\/em\u003e is [Vlautin’s] best achievement yet, a profound look at characters living on the margins, honest people who have been hit hard by the dark realities of a difficult world.... Walking away from \u003cem\u003eThe Free\u003c\/em\u003e, I felt a renewed sense of humanity and hope.” - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eLos Angeles Review of Books\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“Vlautin’s writing is spare and straightforward, in the ‘dirty realist’ tradition of Carver.  [\u003cem\u003eThe Free\u003c\/em\u003e] confirms him as an accomplished novelist, not just a rocker dabbling in the form.” - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eFinancial Times\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“[I]t is love, in all-American, over-salted, extra-large portions, that in the end makes \u003cem\u003eThe Free\u003c\/em\u003e original and compelling.” - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe Guardian\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“Brilliant and beautiful...what a gorgeous book. There are so few writers out there with such ambitious humility.” - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eSarah Hall\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“Courageous, powerful, and mercifully refreshing, \u003cem\u003eThe Free\u003c\/em\u003e is nothing less than an affirmation, that rare novel about lost souls which dares to be hopeful in the face of despair. Vlautin’s hard knock characters will break your heart with their humanity and grace.” - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eJonathan Evison, author of The Revised Fundamentals of Caregiving\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“Willy Vlautin is one of the bravest novelists writing.... An unsentimental Steinbeck, a heartbroken Haruf, Willy Vlautin tells us who really lives now in our America, our city in ruins.” - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eUrsula K. Le Guin\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“With straightforward economy, he draws us into [the characters’] seemingly intractable problems, revealing their persistence and decency... Vlautin’s unadorned narrative is affecting; these unassuming characters bore into us in surprising ways.” - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eNew York Times Book Review\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“With heartbreaking yet hopeful prose Vlautin weaves together a brutally honest tale of pain and isolation in America; of trouble and strife, both economic and spiritual... \u003cem\u003eThe Free\u003c\/em\u003e lays bare a nation of individuals who are trapped, tapped out, exhausted and running on empty when it comes to hope... Vlautin’s novels cast a spotlight on the underclass and underbelly of this land and gives voice to those who may no longer have one.” - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eNew York Journal of Books\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“...a story of our times-about the lack of work, the cost of health insurance, the demonizing of war and the damage to life in the working class. Vlautin writes cleanly, beautifully about the people who hang on despite odds.... A fine novel...bounded by courage and kindliness.” - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eKirkus Reviews\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“\u003cem\u003eThe Free\u003c\/em\u003e is another outstanding book from one of America’s most underappreciated artists.” - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eGeorge Pelecanos\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“Willy Vlautin’s magnificent novel \u003cem\u003eThe Free\u003c\/em\u003e is as raw as it is beautiful, as brutal as it is honest. But despite the difficult truths of his intertwined tales, Vlautin’s characters will lift you up with their quiet compassion and profound dignity.” - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eIvy Pochoda, author of Visitation Street\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Harper Perennial","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":44888186126565,"sku":"NP9780062276742","price":17.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1842\/7735\/files\/9780062276742.jpg?v=1730228358","url":"https:\/\/k12savings.com\/es\/products\/the-free-a-novel-isbn-9780062276742","provider":"K12savings","version":"1.0","type":"link"}