Natives in Exile

Description

Dirk Harman’s critically acclaimed first novel chronicles the parallel lives of several unfortunate souls stranded by history, circumstances and plain old bad living in a slowly dying Mojave desert town. Once a thriving mining community and bustling railroad junction, Solero, California has fallen on hard times, due mainly to a careless error made by a hung-over civil engineer while mapping out a route for the new interstate. Through a series of linked stories told in a lyrical and often humorous voice, Harman portrays a piece of American culture that has been abandoned and left to the elements, like postcards from a ghost town. “Solero is the faded name on the bullet-pocked road sign that flips past your windshield at 80 MPH (and 100 degrees in the shade) on the way to Las Vegas. Of this welcome-to-nowhere town-easily bypassed and quickly forgotten-Dirk Harman has drawn a portrait so vivid, so harsh, so funny, so merciful, that it’s on my literary map for good” -Ursula Le Guin, Capra Press “Getting inside a dozen wildly different characters, from native rattlesnake shaman to itinerant rodeo clown to unrequited coffee shop waitress, Harman himself is shape-shifter and shaman.” -Peter Wild, The Sonora Review “Harman’s prose has the forlorn authenticity of a distant train whistle in the night.” -Charles Solomon, Los Angeles Times