INHABITED
by Charlie Quimby
October 2016 | Fiction | 978-1-937226-67-1 | 365 pp | $16.95
Cover art by Gayle Gerson
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CHARLIE QUIMBY’s debut novel, Monument Road, was an Indie Next pick, a Booklist Editors’ Choice 2013 and a Reading the West finalist. Before turning to fiction, he was an award-winning writer and marketing agency owner who co-authored Planning to Stay, a guide for how residents can shape development in their communities. His nonfiction has appeared in the Minneapolis Star Tribune, High Country News and the Harvard Business Review, and two of his plays have been produced. A native Coloradan and adopted Minnesotan, he makes home in both places and tells stories about homelessness in his blog at charliequimby.com.
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
PRAISE FOR INHABITED
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"Inhabited spotlights the complex forces behind the spaces we call home."
—MINNEAPOLIS STAR TRIBUNE
"The lives of Quimby’s finely drawn characters interweave to produce a panorama as wide and full of light as the near-desert setting. Even his minor figures add significantly to the whole, and his skillful and delightful turns of phrase make reading this evocative novel a pleasure."
—PUBLISHERS WEEKLY, starred review
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"An outstanding novel with memorable, believable characters who deal simultaneously with the challenges of reclaiming and redeeming themselves as well as the landscapes that define their communities."
—THE UTAH REVIEW
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"Quimby’s experiences as a Colorado native and an advocate for the homeless provide the novel’s backbone, but its real strength is in its cast of vivid, relatable individuals. Recommend to readers attuned to Kent Haruf, Annie Proulx, Laura Pritchett, and Bonnie Nadzam."
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“An intriguing examination of people and a place in transition.”
“I was staggered by the authenticity of these people and their dilemmas.”
—FAITH SULLIVAN, author of Goodnight, Mr. Wodehouse
“A thoroughly enjoyable novel that masterfully takes the reader on an emotionally rewarding exploration of ‘home’ and the power the concept has on
the human psyche.”
—JONATHAN ODELL, author of Miss Hazel and the Rosa Parks League
“A dramatic, honest, humane portrait of a Colorado city in the throes of great change and great choice. A vivid, compelling story delivered with 21st-century true grit.”
—ALYSON HAGY, author of Boleto
"A layered drama about our responsibilities to each other and the blunders and scars we must endure. I salute Charlie Quimby for following the path of Steinbeck and Orwell in writing empathetic portraits of the ignored and the shunned.”
—JIM LYNCH, author of Before the Wind
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Meg Mogrin sells pricey houses, belongs to the mayor's inner circle, and knows more than she's letting on about her sister's death. Isaac Samson lives in a tent and believes Thomas Edison invented the Reagan presidency. When their town attracts a game-changing development, Isaac is displaced by the town's crackdown on vagrancy. As Isaac struggles to regain stability, Meg contends with conflicting roles of assisting the developer while serving on the homeless coalition. Isaac's quest to return a lost artifact soon intrudes into Meg's tidy world, digging up a part of her past she'd rather remained buried.