{"product_id":"the-left-and-the-lucky","title":"The Left and the Lucky","description":"\n\u003ctable align=\"center\" border=\"0\" cellpadding=\"2\" cellspacing=\"0\" width=\"100%\"\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd class=\"productDetailSmallElements\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eReview Quotes\u003c\/strong\u003e:\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\"There are shades of Steinbeck here. It's very working class, there's dignity, there's integrity....it's heartbreaking and also uplifting at the same time. He's a guy that needs to be discovered.\" - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eHarlan Coben, TODAY\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\"The Left and the Lucky is a heartbreaking, gritty, funny, and sensitive portrait of American life, complete with rich characters and a really great dog. I loved the main characters, Eddie and Russell, and read their story in one big gulp. Willy Vlautin is a terrific, emphatic writer.\" \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003e--\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cb\u003eAnnie Hartnett, author of \u003ci\u003eThe Road to Tender Hearts\u003c\/i\u003e \u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\"\u003ci\u003eThe Left and the Lucky \u003c\/i\u003eis a gem of a story filled with quiet misfits, miscreants, and the misunderstood, each, in their own way, keeping hope alive and the small wins counted. Willy Vlautin's understanding of masculinity, grief, and the bonds found families forge is palpable. Deeply forgiving and memorable, Vlautin is a true chronicler of the human heart.\" - \u003cb\u003eTammy Armstrong, Author of \u003ci\u003ePearly Everlasting\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\"No one anywhere writes with such power and such stark beauty about American desperation and want, American loneliness and heartache. We need Willy Vlautin like we needed Johnny Cash, like we needed Larry McMurtry--he's essential and every book he writes proves it all over again.\" -\u003cb\u003eJoe Hill, #1\u003ci\u003e New York Times\u003c\/i\u003e bestselling author of \u003ci\u003eFull Throttle \u003c\/i\u003eand \u003ci\u003eStrange Weather\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\"Brimming with compassion and hard-won tenderness ... the sort of novel you eagerly press into the hands of those you love.\" \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003e--\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cb\u003eColin Walsh, Author of \u003ci\u003eKala\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\"One of Vlautin' s signature gifts is allowing his characters to navigate the uneasy coexistence of resilience and resignation. Hope survives in small increments--temporary reprieves rather than salvation. Ultimately, Vlautin suggests that dignity can exist even, or especially, in lives defined by struggle and loss, and that such fortitude may be the ultimate triumph of the human spirit.\" \u003cb\u003e--\u003ci\u003e Booklist\u003c\/i\u003e (Starred Review)\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\"With genuine affection, Vlautin captures his characters' humanity and longing, showing, for example, how Russell daydreams about escaping to an island where he can live without fear. Readers will fall in love with this ode to a struggling community.\" \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003e--Publishers Weekly \u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cb\u003e(Starred Review)\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\"A...compassionate and life-affirming tale about how human connection is critical to survival.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e-\u003ci\u003eKirkus \u003c\/i\u003e(Starred Review)\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\"Vlautin explores a theme rarely seen in literature: the male caregiver.... Vlautin's writing is so easy and strong, he conveys characters and scenes through vivid detail. He can explain a character through the items he or she buys at the grocery store or the smell of their environment.\" -\u003cb\u003e spokesman.com.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\"Willy Vlautin applies his characteristic compassion and spare tone to an unlikely friendship in \u003ci\u003eThe Left and the Lucky\u003c\/i\u003e, a novel of hard times and scant hope.... Vlautin continues to focus upon an American underclass marked by desperation and poverty, people often forgotten or abandoned. With a gruff tenderness, a quiet lyricism, and moments of humor. . . . Vlautin's character sketches and the careful value he places on perseverance are not soon forgotten.\" \u003cb\u003e--\u003c\/b\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cb\u003eShelf Awareness\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\"Willy Vlautin has a way of writing about the simplest elements of living and making them emotional and heartfelt. You care about the characters and what happens to them.\" - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eBook Reporter\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003ePraise for\u003cb\u003e THE HORSE: \u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\"A moving tale of suffering and redemption, \u003cem\u003eThe Horse\u003c\/em\u003e portrays the immense gravity of what it takes to be human in tough times, and the elusive grace that might just be grasped from music, animals, and memory.\" - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eGeraldine Brooks\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\"Willy Vlautin writes about people overlooked by society and overlooked by literature. In \u003cem\u003eThe Horse\u003c\/em\u003e, he tells the story of a tenderhearted man who has a steady talent and a crushing addiction. It is both a work of extraordinary compassion and a really great novel.\" - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eAnn Patchett, New York Times bestselling author of Tom Lake\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\"Might just be his masterpiece. . . . Set against the desolate majesty of the high desert, Vlautin's depiction of one broken soul trying to save another is aspirational, allegorical and, ultimately, transcendent.\" - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eLos Angeles Times\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\"Willy Vlautin captures the American West like few other writers. His prose is always excellent, his characters always beautifully drawn, and that promises to be the case with his next novel, about an isolated Nevada man in his 60s who is visited by a blind horse that refuses to leave.\" - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eNPR\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\"Enigmatic, beautiful. . . . \u003cem\u003eThe Horse\u003c\/em\u003e taps a wealth of influences--Hemingway, Johnny Cash, John Huston's film \u003cem\u003eThe Misfits\u003c\/em\u003e--but Vlautin's cadences and wit are his alone, sharp and bracing, like shots of whiskey. . . . He's a scribe of the underclass, reporting along the margins, teasing melodies from noise and silences. . . . Mythical yet inventive, a struggle between man and beast, \u003cem\u003eThe Horse\u003c\/em\u003e follows the playbook of \u003cem\u003eThe Old Man and the Sea \u003c\/em\u003eor Julia Phillips's recent \u003cem\u003eBear \u003c\/em\u003eweighing the totemic natural world against the frailties of the human condition.\" - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eWashington Post\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003ePublisher Marketing\u003c\/strong\u003e:\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eWINNER OF THE JOYCE CAROL OATES PRIZE\u003cbr\u003eA JOHN MULANEY READS BOOK CLUB PICK\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e\"One of America's greatest storytellers.\"--Jonathan Evison\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eEddie Wilkens is a housepainter in his early forties. His wife has left him, and his one employee barely shows up for work. Unassuming and self-reliant, Eddie rarely gets angry, despite life's frequent provocations, but he is ruled by a guilt that he has carried for nearly twenty years.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eNext door, a woman and her sons move in with her aging mother. Russell is quiet and small for his eight years and lives in constant terror of his increasingly troubled fifteen-year-old brother, Curtis. As their mother struggles to keep the family together and the grandmother's health begins to fail, they find themselves unable to protect Russell and themselves from Curtis's cruelty, which threatens to explode in frenetic violence.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThough neither knows it, Russell and Eddie will become each other's saving grace. Russell begins waiting in Eddie's backyard for him to get off work. Eddie feeds him, gives him odd jobs, listens to his dreams, and offers Russell a glimpse into a brighter world where a derelict muscle car can be revived, a loyal old dog waits for his friends, and Eddie and his misfit crew fumble through their days with humor and heart.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIn return, Russell helps Eddie lay to rest the guilt that has plagued him. Together, this makeshift father and son begin to build a better life, daring to trade the bleak cynicism around them for hope.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eReview Citations:\u003c\/strong\u003e\n\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cspan class=\"italic\"\u003eKirkus Reviews\u003c\/span\u003e 04\/15\/2026 (EAN 9780063346635, Hardcover) - *Starred Review\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cspan class=\"italic\"\u003ePublishers Weekly\u003c\/span\u003e 02\/02\/2026 (EAN 9780063346635, Hardcover) - *Starred Review\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cspan class=\"italic\"\u003eShelf Awareness\u003c\/span\u003e 12\/30\/0001 (EAN 9780063346635, Hardcover)\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cspan class=\"italic\"\u003eBooklist\u003c\/span\u003e 03\/01\/2026 (EAN 9780063346635, Hardcover) - *Starred Review\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\n\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eContributor Bio:\u003c\/strong\u003eVlautin, Willy\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cb\u003eWilly Vlautin\u003c\/b\u003e is the author of the novels \n\u003ci\u003eThe Motel Life, Northline, Lean on Pete, The Free, \u003c\/i\u003e\n\u003ci\u003eDon't Skip Out on Me, The Night Always Comes, \u003c\/i\u003e and \n\u003ci\u003eThe Horse. \u003c\/i\u003eHe is the founding member of the bands Richmond Fontaine and The Delines. He lives outside Portland, Oregon. \n\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\n\n\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003c\/table\u003e\n","brand":"Harper","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":51496184906006,"sku":"9780063346635","price":32.39,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0857\/9910\/8886\/files\/9780063346635.jpg?v=1783056975","url":"https:\/\/lusper.myshopify.com\/products\/the-left-and-the-lucky","provider":"Lusperbooks","version":"1.0","type":"link"}