No Names by Greg Hewett

DESCRIPTION

Inspired by the iconic punk scene of the late '70s, No Names blurs the lines of affection and sexuality in a haunting tale of desire, hope, and loss.

Mike and Pete were "no names", two working-class boys lost in the shuffle of their stratified town, brought together by their love of music. By 1978, their punk band was blazing across the underground scene. Now, in 1993, Mike is a hermit living alone on a dot of an island in the North Atlantic. When a mysterious letter from an unlikely fan named Isaac arrives, he's pulled right back into the pain he’s spent over a decade running from.

Isaac longs for an escape from his lonely teenage life. A chance discovery of the No Names’ only album catapults him into an obsession with the godlike rockers and the tantalizing possibility of connection.

As their stories collide, mistakes breed consequences that echo through the decades like the furious reverberations of a power chord.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

GREG HEWETT is the author of five volumes of poetry, including Blindsight (Coffee House Press, 2016). The recipient of Fulbright fellowships to Denmark and Norway, he has also been a fellow at the Camargo Foundation in France, and is Professor of English at Carleton College. No Names is his first novel. He lives with his husband in Minneapolis.

PRAISE

“[An] elegant debut novel. Hewett poignantly conveys the band members’ passion, both for each other and for their music. It’s well worth a spin.” — Publishers Weekly

"A brutally poetic, endlessly captivating exploration of the transcendent power of music and all its impossible contradictions. With punchy, urgent writing, Hewett details the emotional and psychological complexity of fandom, obsession, failure, and the increasingly rare possibility of true connection." — Joe Meno, author of Book of Extraordinary Tragedies

DETAILS

Paperback | 352 pages