Nobody Move : A Novel

Jimmy Luntz is an innocent man, more or less. He's just leaving a barbershop chorus contest in Bakersfield, California, thinking about placing a few bets at the track, when he gets picked up by a thug named Gambol and his life takes a calamitous turn. Turns out Jimmy owes Gambol's boss significant money, and Gambol's been known to do serious harm to his charges. Soon enough a gun comes out, and Jimmy's on the run. While in hiding he meets up with a vengeful, often-drunk bombshell named Anita, and the two of them go on the lam together, attracting every kind of trouble.

From the National Book Award-winning author Denis Johnson comes Nobody Move: "does exactly what noir should do--propel the reader downhill, with its cast of losers, louts and toughs as they cheat, shoot, and exploit one another into fast-talking oblivion" (Jess Walker, The Boston Globe).

“Displays a wicked sense of fun.” —Sarah Weinman, The Washington Post

“A short, tight, grimly funny dark crime-comedy about losers, hustlers, alcoholics, murder, lowlifes, and a sexy broad with a heart of ice. I loved it.” —Sam Coale, Providence Journal

“A hard-boiled, modern shoot-'em-up in which nobody's hands are clean but everyone gets great lines.” —Bob Minzesheimer, USA Today

“Reads like a Coen brothers movie waiting to happen, a cross between Blood Simple and No Country for Old Men.” —Andrew Ervin, The Miami Herald

“The God I want to believe in has a voice and a sense of humor like Denis Johnson's.” —Jonathan Franzen

“We can hear Twain in [Johnson's] bitter irony, Whitman in his erotic excess . . . An amazingly talented writer.” —Vince Passaro, Newsday

“Good morning and please listen to me: Denis Johnson is a true American artist.” —Jim Lewis, The New York Times Book Review