In this powerful debut novel, brothers Frank and Jerry Lee are on the run after a hit-and-run accident. Interweaving past and present, Vlautin unfolds the story of their unhappy lives--lives afflicted by drink, bleak economic circumstances, and family misfortune.

In this powerful debut novel, brothers Frank and Jerry Lee are on the run after a hit-and-run accident. Interweaving past and present, Vlautin unfolds the story of their unhappy lives--lives afflicted by drink, bleak economic circumstances, and family misfortune.

With "echoes of Of Mice and Men"(The Bookseller, UK), The Motel Life explores the frustrations and failed dreams of two Nevada brothers--on the run after a hit-and-run accident--who, forgotten by society, and short on luck and hope, desperately cling to the edge of modern life.