Synopsis:
A trucker sets out to protect an abandoned child in the Utah desert...Winter has come to Route 117, a remote road through the high desert of Utah trafficked only by eccentrics, fugitives, and those looking to escape the world. Local truck driver Ben Jones, still in mourning over a heartbreaking loss, is just trying to get through another season of treacherous roads and sudden snowfall without an accident. But then he finds a mute Hispanic child who has been abandoned at a seedy truck stop along his route, far from civilization and bearing a note that simply reads "Please Ben. Watch my son. His name is Juan" And then at the bottom, a few more hastily scribbled words. "Bad Trouble. Tell no one.." Despite deep misgivings, and without any hint of who this child is or the grave danger he's facing, Ben takes the child with him in his truck and sets out into an environment that is as dangerous as it is beautiful and silent. From that moment forward, nothing will ever be the same. Not for Ben. Not for the child. And not for anyone along the seemingly empty stretch of road known as Route 117.
My Review:
I haven’t had the pleasure of reading the previous book in this series but now I want to. The writing is outstanding, the characters unforgettable. This book made me want to keep reading. I love Ben Jones’s character. For someone who has suffered such great personal losses, he perseveres, and he remains true to himself. I need to read the first book, and I really hope there is a third!
I received this book from Blogging For Books in exchange for an honest review.
About the Author
James Anderson
James Anderson is an American novelist, short story writer, and poet. He was born in Seattle, Washington and grew up in the Pacific Northwest and is a graduate of Reed College, where he received his BA in American Studies. His undergraduate thesis was the first critical work done on the Beat Poet Lew Welch. Anderson attended Pine Manor College in Boston, Massachusetts where he received his MFA in Creative Writing.
The Never-Open Desert Diner is his first novel. Over the years his short fiction, poetry, essays, and reviews have appeared in many magazines, including The Bloomsbury Review, New Letters, Solstice Magazine, Northwest Review, Southern Humanities Review and others. His first publication, at age nineteen, was the poem 'Running It Down' in Poetry Northwest.
From 1975-1991 Anderson was the publisher and Editor-in-Chief of Breitenbush Books, publishers of general interest nonfiction, fiction, and creative nonfiction. Breitenbush received several awards for its titles, including three Western States Book Awards, juried by, among others, Robert Penn Warren, N. Scott Momaday, Elizabeth Hardwick, Jorie Graham, Jonathan Galassi, Denise Levertov, and Carolyn Kizer. Authors published included Mary Barnard, Naomi Shihab Nye, Bruce Berger, Clyde Rice, Gary Miranda, Peter Sears, David Shetzline, Michael Simms, John Stoltenberg, and Sam Hamill.
He currently divides his time between Colorado and Oregon.
