The Beautiful Catastrophe of Wind

Book excerpt: No one ever chooses to stop at Black Rock Mesa, it's too desolate. The brutal wind, ever-present and temperamental, tests the willpower of the most stalwart residents. So, when a mysterious woman impulsively disembarks from a bus and gets blown into the town's general store, her presence causes quite a stir. She says little, but her Asian features earn her the nickname "Tokyo." Deciding to stay in town, she reveals little about her past, and is comforted to find little is asked. Slowly she comes to see that Black Rock is not like other towns -- due to the wind, everything, even time, works a bit differently. Black Rock, she learns, was founded by three prospectors looking for gold -- Noah, Shlomo and Apie. Noah, the most charismatic of the three, attracted quarrymen to this unforgiving place to tirelessly chip and haul the slate down from the mesa. But the big gaps left in the stories of the past hint to Tokyo that the town folk have secrets bigger than her own. No one is talking, not even the man Tokyo takes up with, Luke, Noah's son. This reticence suits Tokyo just fine, until one day a strange man shows up in Black Rock with revelations. Ultimately, no secret is immune.