Victor D. LaValle

Late in his life, writer Kogito Choko reconnects with his estranged friend, the filmmaker Goro Hanawa. Goro's subsequent suicide causes Kogito to examine and reexamine Goro's life for clues that will lead him to understand his friend's path.

"Twelve original and interconnected stories, Victor D. LaValle's astonishing, violent, and funny debut offers harrowing glimpses at the vulnerable lives of young people who struggle not only to come of age, but to survive the city streets."--BOOK JACKET. "In "ancient history," two best friends graduating from high school fight to be the one to leave first for a better world; each one wants to be the fortunate son. In "pops," an African-American boy meets his father, a white cop from Connecticut, and tries not to care. And in "kids on colden street" a boy is momentarily uplifted by the arrival of a younger sister only to discover that brutality leads only to brutality in the natural order of things."--BOOK JACKET.

Maggie May (1981) / Lester Bangs, inspired by the music and lyrics from "Maggie May" by Rod Stewart and Martin Quittenton -- The National Anthem / Jonathan Lethem, inspired by the music and lyrics from "Speeding motorcycle" by Daniel Johnston as performed by Yo La Tengo -- Blue guitar / Amanda Davis, inspired by the music and lyrics from "Blue guitar" by the Cowboy Junkies -- Untitled / JT LeRoy, inspired by the music and lyrics from "Everlong" by the Foo Fighters -- Dirty mouth / Tom Perrotta, inspired by the music and lyrics from "I won't back down" by Tom Petty -- Hallelujah / Tanker Dane, inspired by the music and lyrics from "Hallelujah" by Leonard Cohen as performed by Jeff Buckley -- Why go / Lisa Tucker, inspired by the music and lyrics from "Why go" by Pearl Jam -- All the security guards by name / Aimee Bender, inspired by the music and lyrics from "The lobby" by Jane Siberry -- She once had me / Anthony DeCurtis, inspired by the music and lyrics from "Norwegian wood (This bird has flown)" by the Beatles -- Milestones / Hannah Tinti, inspired by the music and lyrics from "Milestones" by Miles Davis -- Death in the alt-country / Neal Pollack, inspired by the music and lyrics from "Mama tried" by Merle Haggard -- I shot the sheriff / Touré, inspired by the music and lyrics from "I shot the sheriff" by Bob Marley -- A simple explanation of the afterlife / Victor LaValle, inspired by the music and lyrics from "Aluminum" by the White Stripes -- The eternal Helen / Heidi Julavits, inspired by the music and lyrics from "I found a reason" by the Velvet Underground as performed by Cat Power -- Swampthroat / Arthur Bradford, inspired by the music and lyrics from "Highway to hell" by AC/DC -- Bouncing / Jennifer Belle, inspired by the music and lyrics from "Graceland" by Paul Simon -- Graffiti monk / Ernesto Quiñonez, inspired by the music and lyrics from "The message" by Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five -- Smoking inside / Darin Strauss, inspired by the music and lyrics from "Remedy" by the Black Crowes -- The system / Judy Budnitz, inspired by the music and lyrics from "Way down in the hole" by Tom Waits -- Four last songs / David Ebershoff, inspired by the music and lyrics from "Four last songs" by Herman Hesse and composer Richard Strauss -- Dying on the vine / Elissa Shappell, inspired by the music and lyrics from "Dying on the vine" by John Cale -- Rio / Zev Borow, inspired by the music and lyrics from "Rio" by Duran Duran -- King Heroin / Nelson George, inspired by the music and lyrics from "King Heroin" by James Brown -- The bodies of boys / Julianna Baggott, inspired by the music and lyrics from "Spirit in the night" by Bruce Springsteen.

"On a dreary November night in 1792, Victor Frankenstein used natural-- and unnatural-- science to reanimate the dead. Victor eventually died, but the monster never did. It hid away in Antarctica and thought itself free of humanity. But the world isn't done with the monster and one descendant of the Frankenstein bloodline yet lives..."

This enthralling novel is a remarkable Psychological study of a Prostitute. Set against the picture-making industry of Hollywood, the story revolves round two people, Clive Thurston, who has cheated his way to fame, and Eve, an utterly worthless woman who lives on men. 'Eve' is a bigger subject and a deeper view of life than Mr. Chase has ever before given us. His vigorous, unconventional style is, as always, supremely adapted to the recounting of such a swift-moving dramatic account of human conflict.

Adelaide Henry carries an enormous steamer trunk with her wherever she goes. It’s locked at all times. Because when the trunk opens, people around Adelaide start to disappear. The year is 1915, and Adelaide is in trouble. Her secret sin killed her parents, forcing her to flee California in a hellfire rush and make her way to Montana as a homesteader. Dragging the trunk with her at every stop, she will become one of the “lone women” taking advantage of the government’s offer of free land for those who can tame it—except that Adelaide isn’t alone. And the secret she’s tried so desperately to lock away might be the only thing that will help her survive the harsh territory.

Pepper is a rambunctious big man, and, suddenly, the surprised inmate of a budget-strapped mental institution in Queens, New York. He's not mentally ill, but that doesn't seem to matter. On his first night, he's visited by a terrifying creature who nearly kills him before being hustled away by the hospital staff. It's no delusion: The other patients confirm that a hungry devil roams the hallways when the sun goes down. Pepper rallies three other inmates in a plot to fight back: Dorry, an octogenarian schizophrenic; Coffee, an African immigrant with severe OCD; and Loochie, a bipolar teenage girl. Battling the pill-pushing staff, one another, and their own minds, they try to kill the monster that's stalking them. But can the Devil die?

A fiendishly imaginative comic novel about doubt, faith, and the monsters we carry within us.Ricky Rice was as good as invisible: a middling hustler, recovering dope fiend, and traumatized suicide cult survivor running out the string of his life as a porter at a bus depot in Utica, New York. Until one day a letter appears, summoning him to the frozen woods of Vermont. There, Ricky is inducted into a band of paranormal investigators comprised of former addicts and petty criminals, all of whom had at some point in their wasted lives heard The Voice: a mysterious murmur on the wind, a disembodied shout, or a whisper in an empty room that may or may not be from God. Evoking the disorienting wonder of writers like Haruki Murakami and Kevin Brockmeier, but driven by Victor LaValle's perfectly pitched comic sensibility Big Machine is a mind-rattling literary adventure about sex, race, and the eternal struggle between faith and doubt.From the Hardcover edition.

Returning home to care for his family--an ailing grandmother, violent sister, and promiscuous mother--Anthony is unaware of his own advancing schizophrenia and unable to deal with his secret failures.