Indies Introduce

Fiction

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  On Swift Horses, Shannon Pufahl
  Riverhead Books, 9780525538110, November 5, 2019 (Fiction)
  

   

  “It’s hard to overstate the beauty and lyricism of Shannon Pufahl’s writing in this strange, lovely tale of two people adrift in the American West. Muriel is a young newlywed who follows her husband to San Diego after the Korean War, and Julius is her brother-in-law, a thief who drops in and out of her life. Both are seeking love and good fortune, but neither is sure what that means, or where to find it. This is a haunting portrait of confusion and yearning, and an amazingly evocative picture of a time and place unlike any other.”

  Erika VanDam, RoscoeBooks, Chicago, IL
  
  

  “It’s the late 1950s; the Korean War is over, and Vietnam is getting started. For brothers Julius and Lee, newly home on leave, getting out of Kansas and starting anew in San Diego means the beginning of the American dream. For Lee, it’s his new wife, Muriel, and the promise of a house in the suburbs. For Julius, it’s less clear. These were still early days in the West; folks were watching atomic bombs blow up from the tops of hotels on Fremont Street in Las Vegas, and decency laws still lived on the books and in people’s minds. As we alternate between Julius and Muriel, we see two members of the Greatest Generation trying to be true to themselves.”

  Anne Holman, The King’s English, Salt Lake City, UT
  

   

  “This is not a book I expected to love, but I did. Pufahl’s writing is beautiful, deep, evocative, and stunning at times. It is a love story, but not as you would think; it is love of risk, of the game, of the land, of place and setting, of being free and yet not free, of desire and secrets, of violence and calm. It makes me want to raise my atomic cocktail to her while watching the sun set over the desert, to spend a day at the races, to have a secret.”

  Jessica Osborne, E. Shaver, Bookseller, Savannah, GA