Lawrence Block: Random Walk (2020)

From the Publisher:
In Roseburg, Oregon, a bartender walks off his job and heads east with no destination in mind. The Cascades are in his way, but he doesn't let that stop him.

He keeps walking. And other people are moved to join him, and as they walk the group generates a sort of collective energy, and unexpected things happen. Miraculous things, you might say.

Meanwhile, in Kansas, a perfectly respectable real estate professional loses his temper with a prostitute and surprises himself by killing her. He's even more surprised to discover that he enjoys it as he has never enjoyed anything before. It's even more enjoyable the second time. So he puts his work and his marriage and his whole life on hold and drives around the country, looking for more women to kill.

RANDOM WALK is unlike anything else Lawrence Block has written. Originally published by Tor Books in 1988, it got spotty reviews and disappointing sales. A lot of people didn't know what to make of it. Here's the author's report of reactions over the years:

"Sometimes at a book signing or other public appearance, someone'll come up to me and say, 'You know, I've enjoyed everything you've written, except there was one book that just didn't work for me at all, and I couldn't figure out what you had in mind when you wrote it.' And someone else will say, "I've read and enjoyed your books for years, but there's one book that hit me like a ton of stone tablets, and I've read it seventeen times and I get something new from it each time and I have to say it changed my life.' And I'll know right away that they're both talking about RANDOM WALK. I suppose for some people it's just another book, but for a sizable proportion of readers it's a definite outlier-they either love it like crazy or they don't get it at all."

RANDOM WALK has been in and out of print in the thirty years since it first appeared, delighting some readers and confusing others. We're now very pleased to make it newly available, so that you may decide for yourself what you think of it.

Lawrence Block: Random Walk. LB Productions, ISBN: 9781951939908 (September, 2020), 306 p., Hardcover $27.99, Paperback $14.99, eBook $6.99.

Lawrence Block: Random Walk (UK 2008)

From the Publisher:
In Rosburg, Oregon, a bartender named Guthrie Wagner responds to an inner prompting by quitting his job, walking out of town, and heading east, over the Cascades.

In Fort Wayne, Indiana, a woman named Sara Duskin realizes she's losing her eyesight; her inner vision leads her to board a series of buses, taking her in turn to Chicago and Salt Lake City and Portland.

In Littleton, Colorado, a real-estate investor named Mark Adlon lures a clerk into the rear section of a convenience store, knocks her out with a blow to the head, then waits for her to regain consciousness before strangling her.

These and other lives connect and collide in a rich narrative that is magical and mystical and vividly real.

Lawrence Block has never written another book like Random Walk.

Neither has anybody else.

Please note: this novel was first published in 1988

Lawrence Block: Random Walk. Introduction: Spider Robinson. Cover Artist: Vincent Chong. PS Publishing, ISBN: 9781905834570 (March, 2008), 500 copies, £20.00, signed 200 copies, £50.00.

Lawrence Block: Random Walk (1999)

From the Publisher:
"Every now and then someone comes up to me at a speech or signing and says one of two things. 'I've liked all your books,' I'll be told, 'but there was one I couldn't make heads or tails out of.' Or just the opposite: 'I've read most of your books, but there was one that really knocked me for a loop, and I've read it seventeen times now, and it's completely changed my life.'

"It's always the same book. Random Walk.

"I wrote the book in the spring of 1987, and never was a book more eager to be written. Paradoxically, never was a book less eager to be read---the advance sale was light, the reviews were venomous, and most readers never even knew the book existed. Now it's getting a new lease on life, and I'm delighted. I don't know that it's time has come---it's just as possible it's time has come and gone. But I do know Random Walk has enormous impact on some of the people who read it, and I hope that now they'll have a chance to find it." - Lawrence Block

Lawrence Block: Random Walk. iUniverse, ISBN: 1583483810 (December, 1999), 300 p., $?.??.

Lawrence Block: Random Walk (1988)

From the Publisher:
"In Random Walk Lawrence Block gives us a parable of change. In a tale of ordinary people discovering extraordinary abilities and strengths in themselves, we see the keys to the solution of even the most terrifying problems which confront each one of us. He has captured the questions, feelings and spirit of the new consciousness. I recommend Random Walk as a way of catching up to everything you thought you might have missed in yourself." -- Fredric Lehrman Director, Nomad University

It begins in the Pacific Northwest, in Oregon. Guthrie looks around and decides to take a walk. He doesn't know how far he's going, he doesn't know where he's going. He doesn't take much with him, just a small backpack. A journey of any length begins with a single step and Guthrie takes it, facing east. Wonderful things happen as he walks: Sleeping in the open in the chilled air, Guthrie discovers that he is not cold. Tired, he finds he always has a place to sleep. And he begins to draw people to him: Jody, a young man who doesn't understand what is happening, but knows he must walk. Sara and her son Thom. She's blind, but sees better than the sighted.

Mame, crippled by arthritis, leaves her walker by the roadside. The group grows and walks and heals. Also walking, but on another path, is Mark. Murderous Mark. When he joins the people, he discovers his role... and his punishment. The random walk: It never ends, it just changes; it is not the destination which matters, but the journey.

Lawrence Block: Random Walk. A Novel for a new Age. Tor Books, ISBN: 0312930925 (January, 1988), 306 p., $18.95.