For me there is a type of road novels that acquire a special shine. In this unique subgenre, which has been transferred to the cinema on so many occasions, the adventurous journey of parents and children fleeing the past becomes a transcendent plot from different angles.
Because these stories can serve to unravel parent-child relationships in which we can all find a reflection. There, with the only horizon of a highway, without distractions in between, without silly boxes or digital games, what is happening is life and there is no other option than to look at it head-on.
But it is also true that in road novels there is always a component of transgression. The father is usually a bank robber, an alcoholic criminal, a hit man or a former hitman who seeks forgiveness for his son and the world ... The adventure on back roads needs a foundation.
In what there is no doubt is that in the hyperbole of the extreme characters a multitude of impressions awaken us. Because in reality a son in a car on a lonely road, while his father drives, serves to expose many authentically vital notions: guilt, moments of happiness, the idea of lost loves, even the possible irruption of violence ...
In the case of Samuel Hawley's Twelve Bullets, Samuel himself is the most tormented of the world's parents. On his skin, he literally hides the traces of the most violent past.
Once he has embarked on this particular path to nowhere with his daughter, he would like to leave the past behind, a little after each refueling ... But little Loo has many questions for him about his mother, about what has led them there.
And beyond Loo's doubts, of his natural need to know, Samuel will end up discovering that the past is like the sun that accompanies his sunsets at the wheel, turns and always finds dawn in which to wake up to its harsh reality.
You can now buy the novel The Twelve Bullets by Samuel Hawley, the new book by Hannah Tinti, with a discount for access from this blog, here: