The Night Always Comes

Award-winning author Willy Vlautin explores the impact of trickle-down greed and opportunism of gentrification on ordinary lives in this scorching novel that captures the plight of a young woman pushed to the edge as she fights to secure a stable future for herself and her family. Barely thirty,Lynette is exhausted. Saddled with bad credit and juggling multiple jobssome illegallyshe’s been diligently working to buy the house she lives in with her mother and developmentally disabled brother Kenny. Portland’s housing prices have nearly quadrupled in fifteen yearsand the owner is giving them a good deal. Lynette knows it’s their last best chance to own their own home–and obtain the security they’ve never had. While she has enough for the down paymentshe needs her mother to cover the rest of the asking price. But a week before they’re set to sign the loan papersher mother gets cold feet and reneges on her promisepushing Lynette to her limits to find the money they need. Set over two days and two nightsThe Night Always Comes follows Lynette’s frantic search–an odyssey of hope and anguish that will bring her face to face with greedy rich men and ambitious hustlersthose benefiting and those left behind by a city in the throes of a transformative boom. As her desperation builds and her pleas for help go unansweredLynette makes a dangerous choice that sets her on a precariousfrenzied spiral. In trying to save her family’s futureshe is plunged into the darkness of her pastand forced to confront the reality of her life. A heart wrenching portrait of a woman hungry for security and a home in a rapidly changing cityThe Night Always Comes raises the difficult questions we are often too afraid to ask ourselves: What is the price of gentrificationand how far are we really prepared to go to achieve the American Dream? Is the American dream even attainable for those living at the edges? Or for too many of usis it only a hollow promise?