ABOUT THE NOVEL
Camille's mother Connie collects people. After Connie's brother Wilson has 'the accident' (a single shot to the abdomen; the blood in the snow beside the flagpole; the siren and the ambulance), they move into an abandoned ski resort in Colorado with Wilson's widow Wanda, an agoraphobic veterinarian, and her two sons, Russell, who only wants to be normal, and Wilsie, who is anything but normal. Determined never to use his voice, Wilsie communicates on a blackboard and records other people's conversations on a Fisher Price tape recorder.
Camille's mother Connie makes sure there are many voices to record: Teresa, an ex opera singer; Helen, Stacey, and Winnie, three Certified Veterinary Technicians; Margie, a lonely, suicidal librarian; Finn Green, a PR man; and a group of disillusioned hitchhikers no one will pick up.
Wilsie records the progress of their lives, a world of sex, death, and white noise, but when Wilsie is finally forced to use his voice Camille is left with over four hundred cassette tapes documenting the rise and fall of a micro society with one unmistakable message: we are all alone, even in the company of others.
With a cast of eccentrics that rivals “The Royal Tenenbaums”, ALONE IN THE COMPANY OF OTHERS is about people and their treasured possessions—a running tape recorder, a collection of diplomas, an attic full of disfigured mannequins, or shelves and shelves of books in an all but abandoned public library—and the distinctive role that each of us plays as part of a group dynamic. The book questions where each of us essentially exists—within the singular, the plural, or both.
REVIEWS
"This is both original and accomplished. Kelly Huddleston is such a good writer that she makes the complexities of this novel seem effortless and natural... This is very good as well as ambitious by any standards."
- Bestselling author Deborah Lawrenson
"She has written an intricate piece of work that lets you know there are still excellent storytellers left in the world with an innate gift of craftmanship."
- author Joyce Norman
ABOUT THE NOVEL
The storm was brewing. He could smell it in the air. She was not home yet. She was out to sea, diving for oysters, searching for pearls. The Pacific had become her new lover. She let the water touch her in places he could no longer find.
Someone was out there with her, holding her, kissing her salty skin as her naked body bobbed in and out of the waves, and she was kissing him too.
Now, Ben Heath travels along a ribbon of replenishment. But there is always a memory within a memory, and Ben's memories are as thick as desert dust. With an enigmatic and silent companion by his side, a desert rat who calls himself Truman, Ben is bound for Prayer Town, Texas to take up a role once played by his twin brother Luke.
Prayer Town may indeed hold the elusive promise of common sanity and ideal love, but it also vaults an unexpected revelation - one which compels Ben to make a defining choice for the first time in his life.
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