"I knew then, that morning, when I saw the kid's frozen arms in the back of the car that bad luck had found my brother and me. And us, we took the bad luck and strapped it around our feet like concrete. We did the worst imaginable thing you could do. We ran away…" –from The Motel Life

THE MOTEL LIFE
By Willy Vlautin
Harper Perennial
Trade Paperback Original; $13.95
Pub Date: May 1, 2007
ISBN: 978-0-06-117111-6

Praise for THE MOTEL LIFE

"Full of tenderness, truth and life. I haven't read a novel this good in a long, long time."
—Guillermo Arriaga, screenwriter of Babel and 21 Grams

"At any given time there is, somewhere in American fiction, a man sitting in a bar, stone broke and drinking whiskey and beer, and wondering whether to turn up for work or just high-tail out of town. He's there in Bukowski, and Denis Johnson, and in newcomers like Matthew McIntosh. He's there too in this debut novel by Willy Vlautin, moonlighting from his day-job as singer-songwriter in alt.country band Richmond Fontaine...
—Independent (UK)

"A plaintive ballad about bad luck and good people, in the tradition of John Steinbeck. With lovely line drawings by Nate Beaty…this covetable book is a bibliophile's dream."
—Daily Telegraph (UK)

Opening like an early Tom Waits barstool-tale, THE MOTEL LIFE (Harper Perennial; Trade Paperback Original; Pub Date: May 1, 2007; $13.95) is a "hugely compassionate, wildly original road movie of a novel" (Esquire UK) that tells the story of two brothers, Frank and Jerry Lee, who take to the road in an attempt to escape the consequences of a hit and run accident caused by Jerry Lee. With intense feeling and compassion, Vlautin explores the lives and frustrations of the two brothers—one a natural storyteller, the other an aspiring artist—and perfectly renders the sense of entrapment they feel. Will the accidental death shock them out of their torpor or send them ever deeper into trouble? Can Annie James, a girl from their past, offer them any sort of redemption, however slim?

Hailed as "rough, disturbing, heartbreaking"(Times, UK) and interspersed with drawings that come to form an integral part of the narrative, THE MOTEL LIFE is a poetic, moving, beautifully naïve, and tragic fictional debut that marks the arrival of a major new voice in American fiction.

About the Author
Willy Vlautin's stories have been published in Zembla, Cold-Drill, Southeast Review, and Chiron Review, among other publications. A member of the internationally acclaimed band Richmond Fontaine, Willy Vlautin lives in Portland, Oregon. Please read Willy's PS Questionnaire for Harper Perennial.

Please be sure to learn about Willy's band Richmond Fontaine, and their new record THIRTEEN CITIES, at their own BigHassle.com page: http://bighassle.com/red/richmondfontaine/

Primary Media Contact
Jim Walsh
Big Hassle
walsh@bighassle.com
212-202-0272