Loss and rediscovery occupy the heart of this adventurous collection. The characters in Eternal Night at the Nature Museum find refuge in strange, repurposed spaces: a middle-aged addict emcees a demolition derby, which transforms into a hostel, then a cult; a church congregates in an abandoned Hardee's; octogenarians escape their nursing home; unsupervised children sell knives to the neighborhood. In a contemporary America blemished with loneliness and late-capitalism, there is no end to the fractured places in which these characters find 'home.' In twenty vivid, rowdy, buoyant stories--ranging from one-page flashes to thirty-page odysseys--Barton assembles a collection of unforgettable safe havens perfect for crashing, even if only for a night.
Loss and rediscovery occupy the heart of this adventurous collection. The characters in Eternal Night at the Nature Museum find refuge in strange, repurposed spaces: a middle-aged addict emcees a demolition derby, which transforms into a hostel, then a cult; a church congregates in an abandoned Hardee's; octogenarians escape their nursing home; unsupervised children sell knives to the neighborhood. In a contemporary America blemished with loneliness and late-capitalism, there is no end to the fractured places in which these characters find 'home.' In twenty vivid, rowdy, buoyant stories--ranging from one-page flashes to thirty-page odysseys--Barton assembles a collection of unforgettable safe havens perfect for crashing, even if only for a night.