{"product_id":"the-free-a-novel-isbn-9780063036567","title":"The Free: A Novel","description":"\u003cp\u003eAward-winning author of \u003cem\u003eDon’t  Skip Out on Me\u003c\/em\u003e and \u003cem\u003eThe Motel Life, \u003c\/em\u003eand\u003cem\u003e Lean 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. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eFreddie 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. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003ePauline 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, The Motel Life, has  been made into a film starring Emile Hirsch, Stephen Dorff, Dakota Fanning, and  Kris Kristofferson.\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":44889340510437,"sku":"NP9780063036567","price":10.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1842\/7735\/files\/9780063036567.jpg?v=1730231042","url":"https:\/\/k12savings.com\/products\/the-free-a-novel-isbn-9780063036567","provider":"K12savings","version":"1.0","type":"link"}