Set in Leigh Newman's home state of Alaska, Nobody Gets Out Alive is a collection of dazzling, courageous stories about women struggling to survive not just grizzly bears and charging moose but the raw, exhausting legacy of their marriages and families. In 'Howl Palace', an aging widow struggles with a rogue hunting dog and the memories of her five ex-husbands while selling her house after bankruptcy. In the title story, 'Nobody Gets Out Alive', newly married Katrina visits her hometown of Anchorage and blows up her own wedding reception by flirting with the host and running off with an enormous mastodon tusk.
Alongside stories set in today's Last Frontier - rife with suburban sprawl, global warming, and opioid addiction - Newman delves into the remote wilderness of the 1970s and 80s, bringing to life young girls and single moms in search of a freer, more adventurous America.
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THIS SEPTEMBER, I FINALLY PUT Howl Palace up for sale. HOWL PALACE
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(@simonschusterUK, 23 June 2022, ebook, 288 pages, #ARC from the publisher via # @ edelweiss_squad)
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I loved all of the stories in Nobody Gets Out Alive. I thought the writing style was fantastic, vivid and evocative. The stories, people and places will stay with me for a long time. The stories are all quite different and no two are alike so I was never sure what to expect when I turned the page to start a fresh story. They are linked by themes and ideas and the era and society they are set in. I didn't want this collection to end.