Willy Vlautin is a man of many talents. The frontman and lead songwriter for the beloved (and now disbanded) rock group Richmond Fontaine, Willy has also garnered widespread praise for his writing ever since his debut novel, The Motel Life, published in 2006.
Willy's latest book, Don't Skip Out on Me, tells the story of Horace Hopper, a young man who leaves the only home he's ever known—a Nevada ranch owned by a kind, elderly couple—in a quest to become a champion boxer. It is a stunning exploration of loneliness, identity, and hope. This book will keep you up late into the night and stick to your soul long after. It's something special. Appropriate then, that it already has three STARRED trade reviews:
"In this powerful novel, Vlautin (The Free) writes about characters whose big dreams and plans are often stunted by fate and circumstance, but who’ve managed to find a way to push through, bruised but with hard-won wisdom…excellent. Vlautin’s reverence for the land recalls writers such as Jim Harrison and John Steinbeck."
—Publishers Weekly 
review
"Vlautin’s unerring ability to write without artifice or judgment about hardscrabble people trying to do good makes him the literary heir to the late Kent Haruf. This is a deeply compassionate story made more poignant for its unadorned simplicity, with an ending that lands with the emotional force of a Horace Hopper one-two punch."
—Library Journal 
review
"Vlautin…strips away our defenses with close-to-the bone prose that leaves us utterly exposed to the tragedy of being alive—and every bit as thankful for those moments of aching humanity before the curtain falls."
—Booklist 
review
There are certain writers who, once you've read them, you just can't stop thinking about them. Anyone who reads a Willy Vlautin novel becomes a Willy Vlautin advocate, and, rest assured, with Don't Skip Out on Me, many more Willy Vlautin fans will walk among us.
You can listen to the audio recording of our interview with Willy below.
Did we mention that Willy and Richmond Fontaine came back together to record the INCREDIBLE instrumental book soundtrack? You can listen to a sampling via the three songs below.
Willy also wrote a guide to the soundtrack, which you can read here. The full soundtrack is included with the book, so be sure to grab a copy and lose yourself in this incredible work. To read a sample, click here.
-Chris