Author Description

Natalie and Rob are twenty-somethings who have been out of school for a few years and are charting various paths of downward mobility. A shadow of 1999's "Battle of Seattle" can be felt in the streets of Bellingham in late 2000 and early 2001, the setting of the novel. Natalie has retreated into the back room of a thrift shop with canvas and paint. Rob has abandoned his dream of edgy mainstream journalism and is trying to empower himself with photocopies and stickers. Both Rob and Natalie have pasts that need tending and futures that need planning, and a random encounter with each other in a Mexican restaurant forces them to begin that work as they are drawn back into each other's world while feeling repelled at the same time. The story follows the tensions between various poles: dust and stars, apathy and idealism, love and sadness, disbelief and faith, graffiti and art, Rob and Natalie.