Ingram

Ingram is a boy raised with little care on a dirt farm at the end of a dead-end road in Texas. Poverty and spiritual exhaustion push him to walk away from the only home he has. He has no family, no money and almost no understanding of how the world works. He has one narrow dream, to own a truck someday, and one daily task, staying alive.

His path runs through working-class Texas, past corn farms and oil fields. Diner waitresses, migrant workers and criminals each guide him for a while. Along the way he meets tornadoes, explosions, thieves and steady violence, in a world that shows him no more concern than a jungle or a desert shows the creatures living in it.

This is a picaresque novel, episodic and built on the road. It is suspenseful and often harrowing, and it is also hopeful. The world Ingram finds is cruel and wild, yet it holds unexpected wonders, and his curiosity and humor stay sharp through the worst of it.

As bad luck keeps coming at him, Ingram starts to push back and make his own choices, even when he cannot foresee the consequences. Over the course of his travels he also begins to face a forgotten tragedy from his past, one that shapes how he sees himself, his family and his place in the world. The book is by the comedian Louis C.K.