The Graybar Hotel

The Graybar Hotel offers a glimpse into the reality of prison life through the eyes of the people who spend their days and years behind bars. A man sits collect-calling strangers every day just to hear the sounds of the outside world; an inmate recalls his descent into addiction as his prison softball team gears up for an annual tournament; a prisoner is released and finds freedom more complex and baffling than he expected. In this stunning debut story collection, Curtis Dawkins, who is currently serving a life sentence without parole, gives voice to the experience of some of the most isolated members of our society.

Reviews of The Graybar Hotel

The voice of a man who understands, deeply and instinctively, that, at root, the narrative art is a yearning for contact and, in these stories, what a hilarious, moving, heartbreaking, absurd, and ultimately affirmative endeavour that is proven to be. Stunning — Niall Griffiths The stories in The Graybar Hotel are astonishing, clever and true. It's the best collection I've read in a long, long time — Roddy Doyle