The Never-Open Desert Diner
A Novel
(Sprache: Englisch)
A singularly compelling debut novel, about a desert where people go to escape their past, and a truck driver who finds himself at risk when he falls in love with a mysterious woman.
Ben Jones lives a quiet, hardscrabble life, working as a trucker...
Ben Jones lives a quiet, hardscrabble life, working as a trucker...
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A singularly compelling debut novel, about a desert where people go to escape their past, and a truck driver who finds himself at risk when he falls in love with a mysterious woman.Ben Jones lives a quiet, hardscrabble life, working as a trucker on Route 117, a little-travelled road in a remote region of the Utah desert which serves as a haven for fugitives and others looking to hide from the world. For many of the desert s inhabitants, Ben's visits are their only contact with the outside world, and the only landmark worth noting is a once-famous roadside diner that hasn t opened in years.
Ben s routine is turned upside down when he stumbles across a beautiful woman named Claire playing a cello in an abandoned housing development. He can tell that she s fleeing something in her past a dark secret that pushed her to the end of the earth but despite his better judgment he is inexorably drawn to her.
As Ben and Claire fall in love, specters from her past begin to resurface, with serious and life-threatening consequences not only for them both, but for others who have made this desert their sanctuary. Dangerous men come looking for her, and as they turn Route 117 upside down in their search, the long-buried secrets of those who ve laid claim to this desert come to light, bringing Ben and the other locals into deadly conflict with Claire s pursuers. Ultimately, the answers they all seek are connected to the desert s greatest mystery what really happened all those years ago at the never-open desert diner?
In this unforgettable story of love and loss, Ben learns the enduring truth that some violent crimes renew themselves across generations. At turns funny, heartbreaking and thrilling, The Never-Open Desert Diner powerfully evokes an unforgettable setting and introduces readers to a cast of characters who will linger long after the last page.
Lese-Probe zu „The Never-Open Desert Diner “
Chapter 1 A red sun was balanced on the horizon when I arrived at The Well-Known Desert Diner. Sunrise shadows were draped around its corners. A full white moon was still visible in the dawn sky. I parked my tractor-trailer rig along the outer perimeter of the gravel parking lot. The Closed sign hung on the front door. To the left of the door, as if in mourning for Superman, stood a black metal and glass phone booth. Inside was a real phone with a rotary dial that clicked out the ten white numbers. Unlike the phones in the movies, this one worked if you had enough nickels.
Curiosity usually wasn t a problem for me. I treated it like a sleeping junkyard dog. As a general rule I didn t hop the fence. Jagged scars on my backside reminded me of the few times I had violated that rule. Just because you can t see the dog doesn t mean it isn t out there. Sure, I look through the fence once in a while. What I see and think I keep to myself.
On that Monday morning in late May I was dangerously close to the fence. Walt Butterfield, the diner s owner, was a junkyard Unitarian: he was a congregation of one and his own guard dog. His junkyard was The Well-Known Desert Diner, and he didn t bark or growl before he tore your throat out. I liked him, and his junkyard. The place was a kind of odd shrine. Over the years the diner had become a regular rest stop for me as well as a source of fascination and idle speculation. It was always my first stop, even when I had nothing to deliver to Walt. Sometimes it was my last stop too.
Out of habit, I tried the front door. It was locked, as usual. This was Walt s face to the world. Walt slept in what had been a small storage room attached to the kitchen. Behind the diner, across a wide alleyway of sand and flagstone, was a 50-by-100-footgalvanized steel World War II Quonset hut. This was where Walt really lived, alone with his motorcycles, and tools and grease and canyons of crated parts that reached to the ceiling.
... mehr
Walt s motorcycle collection totaled nine of the finest and rarest beasts ever to have graced the roadways of America and Europe. Among them was his first, a 1948 Vincent Black Shadow. It was the same motorcycle he was riding, his new Korean War bride hugging his thin waist, the day he first rode onto the gravel of what was then called The Oasis Café. He was twenty years old. She was sixteen and spoke no English. They bought the place a year later, in 1953.
Walt kept the diner, like everything else in his life, in pristine shape. I peered through the glass door at the lime-green vinyl seats of the six booths and twelve stools. The platoon of glass salt and pepper shakers stood at attention. The trim along the edge of the counter shined its perpetual chrome smile back at me. The brown and ivory linoleum tiles reflected their usual wax and polish. A 1948 Wurlitzer jukebox hunkered against the far wall. Behind the counter, the same order ticket as always hung lifeless from a wire above the stainless steel kitchen pass-through. As far as I knew it was the final ticket from the last meal prepared for a paying guest, probably sometime in the autumn of 1987.
I returned to my truck and off-loaded a heavy carton filled with the usual motorcycle parts and wheeled it to the door of the Quonset hut. On Wednesday of the previous week Walt had received some unusual freight from New York six boxes, all different sizes. They didn t have the sloppy heft of motorcycle parts, though that alone wasn t what got my attention. Each carton had a different return address in New York City, but all of them were from the same sender, someone named Chun-Ja. No last name. T hey had arrived in pairs, all originating on the same day, each set of two sent through one of the big three corporate carriers FedEx, UPS, and DHL. By special contract I delivered for Fe
Walt kept the diner, like everything else in his life, in pristine shape. I peered through the glass door at the lime-green vinyl seats of the six booths and twelve stools. The platoon of glass salt and pepper shakers stood at attention. The trim along the edge of the counter shined its perpetual chrome smile back at me. The brown and ivory linoleum tiles reflected their usual wax and polish. A 1948 Wurlitzer jukebox hunkered against the far wall. Behind the counter, the same order ticket as always hung lifeless from a wire above the stainless steel kitchen pass-through. As far as I knew it was the final ticket from the last meal prepared for a paying guest, probably sometime in the autumn of 1987.
I returned to my truck and off-loaded a heavy carton filled with the usual motorcycle parts and wheeled it to the door of the Quonset hut. On Wednesday of the previous week Walt had received some unusual freight from New York six boxes, all different sizes. They didn t have the sloppy heft of motorcycle parts, though that alone wasn t what got my attention. Each carton had a different return address in New York City, but all of them were from the same sender, someone named Chun-Ja. No last name. T hey had arrived in pairs, all originating on the same day, each set of two sent through one of the big three corporate carriers FedEx, UPS, and DHL. By special contract I delivered for Fe
... weniger
Autoren-Porträt von James Anderson
JAMES ANDERSON grew up in the Pacific Northwest. He is a graduate of Reed College, and received his MFA in creative writing from Pine Manor College. His short fiction, poetry, essays, and reviews have appeared in many magazines, and he previously served as the publisher and editor-in-chief of Breitenbush Books. The Never-Open Desert Diner is his first novel.
Bibliographische Angaben
- Autor: James Anderson
- 2016, 304 Seiten, Masse: 13,2 x 20,5 cm, Kartoniert (TB), Englisch
- Verlag: Crown
- ISBN-10: 1101906901
- ISBN-13: 9781101906903
- Erscheinungsdatum: 22.01.2019
Sprache:
Englisch
Pressezitat
"An exceptional book . The novel is outstanding in every regard writing, plot, dialogue, suspense, humor, a vivid sense of place. - The Washington Post"High, dry and severely beautiful.... Anderson is one fine storyteller." - Marilyn Stasio, New York Times Book Review
James Anderson's first novel works on elements of mirage -- a mystery novel with literary shimmers. In the end it is all there, apparent in the high heat of the desert: a great story, well-told, funny, daring, smart and deeply affecting. Colum McCann, National Book Award-winning author of Let the Great World Spin
"James Anderson has written a striking debut novel lyrical, whimsical, atmospheric and skillfully rendered." - CJ Box, New York Times Bestselling author of Badlands
"You have not read a book like The Never Open Desert Diner in a long time, if ever. Once you open its pages you will know you are in for something surprisingly enjoyable. James Anderson and his premiere novel are a serendipity that will make a mark on your brain in the most positive way." - Jackie Cooper, The Huffington Post
"An extraordinary debut." - Milwaukee Sun-Sentinel
"Anderson ... writes with a lyrical style and allows the plot to unfold in a manner as seductive as the desert itself. Readers who revel in fiction set in the Southwest will want to join his protagonist for the ride." - Library Journal
"Anderson distills the heat and shimmering haze of the Utah desert into his fine first novel." - Publishers Weekly
"Part love story, part mystery, part meditation on place, James Anderson's The Never-Open Desert Diner is peopled with quirky characters and peppered with fine prose that has the taste of truth. Anderson's abundant talents will certainly keep readers turning the pages." Roland Merullo, author of Breakfast With Buddha
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