by Don Winslow
Winslow with his two dogs, Bud and Lou, on the deck of his house in Riverton, Connecticut, in the early 1990s. Riverton, a small, postcard New England town, has one general store—the Riverton General Store—that, Winslow says, “made the best sandwiches in the world.”
Winslow with his late friend Quentin Keynes and his son at Christmas around 2003. Keynes was a safari guide, filmmaker, rare-book collector, and the great-grandson of Charles Darwin. The London flat in Cool Breeze on the Underground was based on Keynes’s, where Winslow lived for several summers in the 1970s while Keynes was away in Africa. One of the characters in the book—Simon Keyes—was also based on Keynes.
Winslow at a book signing for The Winter of Frankie Machine in 2006.
Winslow and his son playing roller hockey.
Once a safari guide in Africa, Winslow, seen here in Kenya in about 2007, poses with his son, wife, Jean, and two Samburu trackers, both of whom he has known since they were young. He once gave the trackers two camels to start a herd and says that now “there are apparently dozens of camels in North Kenya with the name Winslow.” Winslow’s connection to Kenya runs deep. He proposed to Jean on an island off the coast of Kenya, and when their son was born, he received spears and shields.
Winslow on a rainy day in Berlin in September 2010.
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This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
copyright © 2010 by Don Winslow
cover design by Milan Bozic
ISBN: 978-1-4532-0620-1
This edition published in 2010 by Open Road Integrated Media
180 Varick Street
New York, NY 10014
www.openroadmedia.com
Table of Contents
Prologue: Dad’s Call
Part One: The Sound of One Hand Clapping
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
Part Two: The Main Drag
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
Part Three: A Place You Can Hear Your Heartbeat
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
Epilogue: Just Neal
A Biography of Don Winslow