Publisher's Synopsis
Crisscrossing through the small towns of Argentina to find a rare rock album, a middle-school teacher from Texas is forced to confront his understanding of the past. Through the language of music, Let It Be Our Ruin examines the myths of identity and historic realities. Rumors about a musician whose fame peaked during the Argentine Dirty War and teenage gossip about a high-school friend harmonize with the stories of nations to create a composition about grief, the multiple ways of speaking truth, and the blues.
"Let It Be Our Ruin is a profound and elegiac novella about exile and friendship. Williams is a graceful, stunning new talent. Following the quest for a mysterious rare album and an Argentine musician whose legacy was nearly forgotten after the Dirty War, Let It Be Our Ruin reveals the vast and intimate ways in which music and loss binds us across myth, language, and shattered histories." Michael Zapata, author of The Lost Book of Adana Moreau "On the surface, Lee Tyler Williams's novella is a story about a music collector who embarks on a trip to find an obscure record, but at its core, it's a story about history, loss and love. Its trip into the wilds of obsession asks us to look at what drives us (those shadows of fascination we cannot shake from us). Encyclopedic and shrewd in its cultural observations, Let It Be Our Ruin is an enthralling bifurcated ethnography that sings a wondrous song and we'd be well served to listen." duncan b. barlow, author of A Dog Between Us, The City, Awake, and Of Flesh and Fur "Lee Tyler Williams has written a charring and delightful quest novel that is a must read for anyone who has sought the answers to the universe's deepest questions in music and travel. Part bonfire ash and part bougainvillea petals, Let It Be Our Ruin is a gem for wayward souls to snuggle against. A super cool novella!!!" Brian Allen Carr, author of Opioid, Indiana
