All I Have in This World A Novel

by Parker, Michael

• ISBN13: 9781616204488
• ISBN10: 1616204486
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2014-11-11
• Publisher: Algonquin Books

Summary

“A very funny, very moving novel about being lost and then found . . . I love this book.”
—Antonya Nelson, author of Bound

Two strangers meet over the hood of a used car in Texas: Marcus, who is fleeing both his financial and personal failures, and Maria, who after years of dodging her mistakes has returned to her hometown to make amends. One looking forward, the other looking back, they face off over the car they both want. And after knowing each other for less than an hour, they decide to buy it together. All I Have in This World is a different kind of love story about the power of friendship.

“A Springsteenian ode to the promise and heartbreak of the highway.” —The New York Times

“Parker’s skillfully rendered story rolls like a restless, unpredictable west Texas river—calm depths here, turbulent shallows there—as Marcus and Maria communicate and lurch toward an imperfect union . . . Which feels a lot like real life.” —The Denver Post

“Both poetic and starkly real . . . All I Have in This World charts the emotional and geographic journey of two people trying valiantly to move forward.” —The Raleigh News and Observer

“A sweet, sinuous, and smart love story.” —Washingtonian magazine
 

Author Biography

The author of seven novels and three collections of stories, Michael Parker has been awarded four career-achievement awards: the Hobson Award for Arts and Letters, the North Carolina Award for Literature, the R. Hunt Parker Award, and the 2020 Thomas Wolfe Prize. His short fiction and nonfiction have appeared in the Washington Post, the New York Times, Oxford American, Runner’s World, Men's Journal, and others. He is a three-time winner of the O. Henry Prize for his short fiction and his work has appeared in dozens of magazines and several anthologies. He taught for twenty-seven years in the MFA Writing Program at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, and since 2009 he has been on the faculty of the Warren Wilson Program for Writers. He lives in Austin, Texas.