A tornado whips the dry plains of New Mexico. It is the early 80s, and the ghastly boogeyman of nuclear war has long threatened America's nuclear families. An aging priest scared of death takes acid in the hopes that it will quell haunting visions brought on by war trauma. A mesmerizing, drug-addled waif confronts her own lack of identity and purpose. A conflicted mother wonders if her daughter's addiction to methamphetamines is her own fault. Two Baby Boomer misfits seek shelter with an older couple after their car breaks down not far from Los Alamos, where the first atomic bomb was built. Unwanted by their families, runaways from Christian fundamentalism, they bring with them a bag full of drugs and their own marital turmoil. As the tornado approaches the couple's house, their hosts share their memories of growing up and falling in love at "Lamy," where both their fathers were scientists recruited by the Manhattan Project. Tempers flare and intergenerational rifts erupt after it becomes apparent that the guests are anything but upstanding citizens. The Visitors is a riveting and poignant sketch of vagabonds, veterans, rebels, housewives and antiheroes. This book is like a highly entertaining Rorschach test. You will either cheer for everyone or no one, but you will not fail to find in The Visitors a very moving and entertaining tale about what keeps us moving forward and trying to relate to one another even when the world appears dark, chaotic and absurd.
About the Author: Penelope Gristelfink grew up in West Texas, but she moved to the Northeast at the age of eighteen. She graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in English from Temple University in Philadelphia, Pa in 2005. She worked as a reporter for newspapers, writing mostly about crime, court cases, government corruption and waste, including some really gross, actual medical waste. Among her unfinished works is something called "Skip the Laundry, Turn Your Dirty Panties Inside Out: The Girls' Guide to Police Reporting." (She plans to let that one remain unfinished.) In 2013, she wrote for a Pulitzer Prize winning newspaper in the U.S. Virgin Islands. The tropical surroundings and relentlessly sunny days disagreed with her prickly, East Coast nature, so she returned to the mainland United States a few years ago. She now lives outside of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Her poetry, short stories and essays have been published in over a dozen literary journals. She is working on her second novel.