The Salt Palace

The marvel of this gritty and propulsive first novel is that Darren DeFrain, right out of the gates, has staked claim on a wild new territory of desperate love, alienation, heartbreak, and redemption. A stranger in his own land, our hero Brian is driving across America to find himself or to lose himself, he’s not sure which. He’s got a passenger with him—Randy, a one-armed Mormon Lone Ranger, a character as memorable as any in contemporary fiction, and there’s room for one more.