Doc Ebersole lives with the ghost of Hank Williams. Literally. In 1963, ten years after giving Hank the overdose that killed him, Doc is wracked by addiction. Having lost his licence to practise medicine, he lives in a rented room in the red-light district on the south side of San Antonio, performing abortions and patching up the odd knife or gunshot wound. But when Graciela, a young Mexican immigrant, appears in the neighbourhood in search of Doc's services, miraculous things begin to happen. Everyone she meets is transformed for the better, except, maybe, for Hank's angry ghost - who isn't at all pleased to see Doc doing well. "I'll Never Get Out of This World Alive" is a ballad of regret and redemption, and of the ways in which we remake ourselves and our world through the smallest of miracles.
"Steve Earle brings to his prose the same authenticity, poetic spirit, and cinematic energy he projects in his music. I'll Never Get Out of This World Alive is like a dream you can't shake, offering beauty and remorse, redemption in spades" Patti Smith "A doctor, a Mexican girl, an Irish priest, the ghost of Hank Williams, and JFK the day before he dies. This subtle and dramatic book is the work of a brilliant songwriter who has moved from song to orchestral ballad with astonishing ease" Michael Ondaatje "Earle's language is vividly poetic, his humour is never clunky and he always convinces, whether working on a cinematic or intimate scale" -- Sharon O'Connell Time Out "A rich, raw mix of American myth and hard social reality, of faith and doubt, always firmly rooted in a strong sense of character" Charles Frazier "Steve Earle writes like a shimmering neon angel" Kinky Friedman
Title: I'll never get out of this world alive
Subtitle:
Contributors:
By (author)
Steve Earle
ISBN 13: 9780099554479
ISBN 10: 009955447X
Publisher: Vintage
Imprint: Vintage
Publication Date: 3/09/2012
Place of Publication:
London,
United Kingdom
Edition:
BIC Subjects:
Modern fiction
NBS Classification: General & Literary Fiction
Dewey Classification:
813.6
(DC23)
Format: Paperback
Pages: 256
Height: 198mm
Width: 129mm
Thickness: 16mm
Weight: 188g