An Open Letter to Willy Vlautin

Willy,

I am writing to thank you for your lovely book Northline.

First, some background. The latter half of 2007 has been just brutal personally. I didn't get the the coveted job, had to have a longtime pet put down , lost the love of my life. If loss is a place it's like my car has broken down there and I have no money for repairs.

Then, a friend made me a gift of your book and its soundtrack. My friend is a writer too which means, of course, he is a watcher first and I believe, though he never said so, that he knew that Northline was not only a book I would enjoy reading but one I needed to read. The right book at the right time. How right he was.

I feel a deep gratitude that your protaganist, Allison, exists. She's definately my new fictional best friend. Her journey speaks to me so deeply I hardly know how to express it. I love that what seems like such a simple story while you are reading it packs such gigantic wallop that you're left still thinking about it weeks later. I love that things get better for her not in an artificial 'chicken soup for the soul' way but instead by her hanging in there and collecting the small kindnesses that come her way. Fortitudine Vincimus-"by endurance we prevail".

I also love the soundtrack. It has been the background for some serious soul searching of my own. For weeks it was the only music I sought out. To fully appreciate how significant that is you have to realize that for me a broken heart means everything is stripped away, at least temporarily. Not just that beloved person-everything. Sleep, food, music-it all goes and must be reclaimed bit by bit. Your soundtrack helped bring the music back for which I am also profoundly grateful.

I'm sure that when I look back on this time from the harbor of better days I will be able to say your book, its soundtrack and my friend's gift of it to me will be on the list of things that saved me. So again, and repeatedly, thank you.

sam


*Northline will be published in the US by Harper Perennial in Spring 2008.*