Northline

By: Willy Vlautin

Narrated by: Amy Boone

Fleeing Las Vegas and her abusive boyfriend, Allison Johnson moves to Reno, intent on making a new life for herself. Haunted by the mistakes of her past, and lacking any self-belief, her only comfort seems to come from the imaginary conversations she has with Paul Newman, and the characters he played. But as life crawls on and she finds work, small acts of kindness start to reveal themselves to her, and slowly the chance of a new life begins to emerge.

Full of memorable characters and imbued with a beautiful sense of yearning, Northline is an extraordinary portrait of contemporary America from a writer and musician whose work has been lauded as “mournful, understated, and proudly steeped in menthol smoke and bourbon” (New York Times Book Review).

©2018 Willy Vlautin (P)2018 Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Tragically beautiful, yet hopeful

Willy dares to go where most writers never tread. This novel explores the depths of what it means to live on the fringe, to barely survive and yet to still find hope and beauty in this world. The narration is perfection. If this story doesn’t move you, nothing will.

Realness

The dialogue and situations stay true to the characters rendering them hauntingly beautiful even in their frailty. I cared about them. I felt vexed at times but always found my way to cheering them on … I’ll be reading more from Mr. Vlautin.

My Favorite Book Today

Great character study. Narration is first rate. More Willy Vlautin for me! ☆☆☆☆☆ A PLUS 10/10

Not the best of his books

It is my opinion that some male writers are unable to write convincingly from the female pov. This is yet another example of that. I'm a fan of his writing, but this one misses the high water mark set by "The Horse". That being said, the flat affect of the narrator was astute.