After Nirvana — Lee Williams

Set in the Pacific Northwest, After Nirvana follows a small bunch of drugged-out street kids. The narrator, Davey, chronicles his life on the street with a group that includes his girlfriend, Nikki; a boy he loves, named James; a violently twisted older kid called Branch; and assorted tricks and dealers. With astonishingly gritty depictions of America's underside, author Lee Williams brilliantly captures daily existence for these anesthetized teens and includes hypnotically raunchy scenes of gay and straight sex -- usually performed for cash or drugs, some times for lust or love. After Nirvana employs a unique vocabulary (for example, sex is always called slither) and verbal pyrotechnics to tell a riveting story that is sometimes funny, often grim, but always tremendously moving. It is as powerful and original as any novel published in recent years and as real as the kids sleeping on the streets in any city or town in America.