Willy Vlautin In store at Fopp

• 3rd Apr 2006

Willy Vlautin, singer with US country-rock band Richmond Fontaine, will be making an appearance at Fopp's Covent Garden store, Earlham Street, at 1pm on Friday 28th April, to support the launch of his debut novel, “The Motel Life”.

The Motel Life: A Novel tells the story of two brothers, Frank and Jerry Lee.
Taking to the road in an attempt to escape the hit and run accident caused by Jerry Lee, the novel goes back to tell the story of their unhappy lives, lives afflicted by drink, economic circumstance and family misfortune.

With intense feeling and compassion, Vlautin explores the frustrations and failed dreams of the two brothers.

Interspersed with drawings that come to form an integral part of the narrative,The Motel Life is a poetic, moving, beautifully naive and tragic fictional debut.

Alongside such seminal works as Annie Proulx's Postcards, Raymond
Carver's What we talk about when we talk about love and Denis Johnson's Jesus' Son, it should come to be seen as a classic of downbeat American prose.

Fopp in-stores – acoustic sets from breaking bands performed in Fopp stores across the UK, including Cambridge – are becoming something of an institution.

Franz Ferdinand, The Kooks, Magic Numbers and the holders of last year'sChristmas Number One slot – Nizlopi, have all played at Fopp stores recently.

Fopp's ability to provide a platform for cutting edge bands to play to fans
across its stores is being developed all the time. There are now 25 Fopp
outlets in the UK, with the last few months seeing three new stores open in London, along with further Fopp's springing up in Bath, Brighton, East Kilbride and Southampton.