In the Desert

In the Desert a phone begins to ring…

A traumatized movie star returns to his dying hometown to find the woman he loves has disappeared. He vows to find her. In the Desert follows five friends as the consequences of a bartered 24 hours from their childhood unravel in betrayal, murder, undying love, and a phone booth at the end of the world.

A propulsive, original and startling read. If the likes of Ford and Wolff had ‘dirty realism’, Byar — with her collection of misfits, dreamers and lost souls — is pioneering a path in ‘dirty cosmic realism’. A striking debut.

— Noel O’Regan, author of Though the Bodies Fall

In the Desert evokes the danger and magic that lies in the parched landscape and in the restless hearts of those who live there. Barbara Byar’s cinematic writing creates an electric portrait of lives spinning on their edge.

-Rónán Hession, author of Leonard & Hungry Paul & Ghost Mountain

In the Desert is like watching Paris, Texas and Blood Simple in 3D, on acid, at a blisteringly hot drive-in movie theatre. This is the American Dream turned bad and mean, the death of naive and youthful fantasy on tortured desert highways, the agony of lost love. It is dark, and so darned beautiful you will want to read it again and again. I swear, you will never forget this novel. It will haunt you, reinvigorate you, and make you believe that even at the end of all things cherished, true love can endure. Read it, love it, tell everyone about it. In the Desert is a true classic!

–Jennifer McMahon, author & editor Frazzled Lit

Inventive, dark, and transcendently disorienting, In the Desert delivers a relentless narrative of love and loss. Wielding time and space with inventive force, Byar’s voice is a knife: sharp, precise and cuts straight through to the heart of the matter. She brings us on a gritty, surreal journey of hope, examining what remains when everything else unravels.

–Charleen Hurtubise, author of Saoirse