About the Book
In The Darling of the Black Rock Desert, Julia loves Howi, but never intends to marry him until she realizes she’s pregnant with few options; it is, after all, 1960. Life becomes more complicated and yet richer when their darling daughter, Nia, is born with a physical disability.
It’s 1986 in City of Angels when Henri and Simone Bouchard meet in the iconic Los Angeles Central Library. Simone is a college art student working on watercolor portraits with a punk edge, and Lenny, at the well-worn edge of his 30’s, is a Viet Nam vet trying to survive extreme PTSD. They strike up an unlikely acquaintance that is interrupted when the great Los Angeles Library fire of 1986 happens, a substantial portion of the book stacks going up in flames.
In The Saints of Death Valley, a nun in a San Francisco convent adopts a baby left on the doorstep and in order to raise her must leave the faith. Named Grace, the baby grows up; however, after committing what she fears to be an unforgivable sin, she takes her bag of holy cards and hits the road, winding up at the Burning Man Festival and then in Death Valley where she is taken in by a family of pastry chefs and landscapers and tries to reinvent herself in a secular world.
Newman’s trio of novellas are by turns probing, incandescent, and like her shorter fiction, riotously funny and are certain to broaden her readership.
Praise for The Darling of the Black Rock Desert
Newman has a gift for jumping gracefully from one point of view to another and revealing the connections between multiple characters . . . artful . . . sinuous . . . intriguing.
― Publishers Weekly
Praise for The Franklin Avenue Rookery for Wayward Babies
With candor, wry wit and memorable details, these stories shimmer.
― Publishers Weekly
Newman excels at succinctly providing her characters with rich histories and surprising, well-executed turns. . . She can be inventive with form and creative with plotting. There are moments of tender insight. . . skillful storytelling..
― Kirkus Reviews
The Franklin Avenue Rookery for Wayward Babies is a wonderful work of imagination and art. Every story sings and resonates, surprises and delights. This is a beautiful collection of unforgettable stories, and Laura Newman is a supremely gifted writer. I can not recommend it more highly.
― John Lescroart, New York Times bestselling author of The Rule of Law
Laura Newman aims this dazzling collection of stories straight at us, straight from the heart. By turns wry, madcap and tragic, we are in the hands of an intrepid storyteller. These generous tales are an antidote–maybe even healing–for times we feel mired in our own here and now. A work of boundless imagination, we’re lifted out of ourselves and into the wondrous world of others.
― Joanne Meschery, Pen/Faulkner nominee for The Gentlemen’s Guide to the Frontier
About the Author
Laura Newman is the author of The Franklin Avenue Rookery for Wayward Babies. Her short stories have appeared in The Saturday Evening Post, Literary Hub, Failbetter, Apricity Magazine, New Plains Review, and the Reno News & Review. Laura is a recipient of the University of Nevada Libraries Nevada Writers Hall of Fame Silver Pen Award.
Laura is a world wanderer and long-distance trekker. She has hiked in Nepal, Peru, Japan, and many European countries. Her treks have a tendency to walk into her stories. Laura lives in Reno, Nevada, and considers Lake Tahoe and the Great Basin Desert her backyard.
Author photo credit: Cat Stahl
Author’s website: www.lauranewmanauthor.com