Pig Iron

A guileless group of misfits share an extraordinary undertaking in Davies' new novel set in 1968 in the United States. Recently bereaved, a Montana guitar-maker pursues a dream he has contemplated for many years?to break the wheel-driven world land-speed record at the Bonneville Salt Flats. Four unlikely teammates volunteer their energies to build a four-engined streamlined racing car: Jill, an aspiring tap dancer; Beth, a failed fashion model; Ephram, a curmudgeonly engine-builder and Holocaust survivor; and Stan, an orphan, metalworker, and Vietnam draftee-apparent. Davies skillfully reveals the thoughts and anxieties of each character and discloses the meaning they have discovered in their hopes and dreams in life, and the often unexpected ways in which these are realized. In the words of critic W.J. Keith, Pig Iron is "a balance of the worldly and mysterious."