The Loneliest Road in America — Roy Parvin

A thoroughly fresh voice and a rarely observed rural world come together in this extraordinary debut collection. The stories revolve around a small town in the Trinity Mountains of Northern California and the people who live there -- or flee. Caught between the fantastic and the real, existing on the fringes of mainstream society, these characters include a solitary marijuana grower who must deal with an intruder in his garden, a mystical Native American whose camp is about to be destroyed by loggers, a wanderer who finds a mentor in the wilderness, and other strange, beautiful, and haunting men and women. The driving lyricism of his writing, arresting originality of the subjects and landscapes, and insights into human nature mark this launch of a brilliant writer's career.