Hearts in Atlantis

Published in 1999, Hearts in Atlantis is a linked collection of five stories set across several decades of the Vietnam War generation's life. The centerpiece novella, 'Low Men in Yellow Coats,' follows eleven-year-old Bobby Garfield in 1960 and his friendship with a mysterious elderly lodger named Ted Brautigan.

Ted Brautigan is a psychic being with the ability to read minds, who has been hunted for years by 'Low Men'—agents of the Crimson King from the Dark Tower universe. He finds temporary safety boarding in Bobby's house. Ted later appears as a significant figure in the Dark Tower novel Black House.

The title refers to a lost world—both the idealism of the 1960s generation and the specifically collegiate world where students spent their time playing cards (Hearts) in dormitory lounges instead of protesting the Vietnam War. 'Atlantis' is what Bobby's friend Carol calls that world of lost youth: beautiful, submerged, gone.

The 2001 film of the same name adapted only the first story, 'Low Men in Yellow Coats,' starring Anthony Hopkins as Ted Brautigan and Anton Yelchin as Bobby. The film omitted the Vietnam-era stories entirely. It received mixed reviews but is generally considered a thoughtful, understated adaptation.