Seventy Two And One Half Miles Across Los Angeles

Miles one to twelve -- Miles thirteen to twenty-four -- Miles twenty-five to thirty-six -- Miles thirty-seven to fourty-eight -- Miles fourty-nine to sixty -- Miles sixty-one to seventy-two and one half -- A walk across Los Angeles / Nigel Raab -- Afterword.

Unexplainable things happen. Some call it coincidence. In the compelling psychological thriller Kingdom Come, CA, author Judy Strick introduces fascinating and sometimes frightening questions about what we call reality. Ruby Wellman, a reclusive surrealist artist, hides a deep and horrifying childhood secret. So does Finn McCord, a profoundly disturbed six-year-old who talks only to animals and imaginary friends. Their lives intersect in Kingdom Come, a tiny mountain town in the middle of nowhere, California.

A “shrewd, funny, and sometimes devastating” novel about the things we desire and the things we throw away (Entertainment Weekly). A New York Times Notable Book A highly inventive, corrosively funny story of our times, Want Not exposes three different worlds in various states of disrepair—a young freegan couple living off the grid in New York City; a once-prominent linguist, sacked at midlife by the dissolution of his marriage and his father’s losing battle with Alzheimer’s; and a self-made debt-collecting magnate, whose brute talent for squeezing money out of unlikely places has yielded him a royal existence, trophy wife included. Want and desire propel these characters forward toward something, anything, more, until their worlds collide, briefly, randomly, yet irrevocably, in a shattering ending that will haunt readers long after the last page is turned. “Its pleasures are endless."—Joshua Ferris, author of Then We Came to the End “Terrific…The novel may begin with prickly satire, it may dig deep into America’s disposable lifestyle, but it ultimately pivots to scenes of surprising tenderness…a novel to hoard.”—The Washington Post “Leaps nimbly from topic to topic…from freeganism to conspicuous consumption; from Manhattan's Alphabet City to residential New Jersey to the backwoods of Tennessee; and from neighbors with nothing but geographical location in common to sisters who share nothing but blood….Sitting down with Want Not is like finding yourself opposite the most interesting person at a dinner party. It pulls you in immediately; makes you shake your head in wonder and delight at your new companion's wit, originality, and compelling turns of phrase; and, best of all, surprises you into laughter.”—Pittsburgh Post-Gazette “For readers who relish extravagant language, scathing wit and philosophical heft, Want Not wastes nothing.”—Kirkus Reviews (starred review)