Reverb, TX

From the expanses of the Chihuahuan Desert to the secrets of the Piney Woods, Texas is travelers’ country. Home to several distinct cultures, the only common trait among the far-flung people of the Lone Star State is hardscrabble grit–a persistence in the relentless landscape.

But there is more to Texas than tumbleweeds and tornadoes. The people who define the state’s distinct cultures live in uneasy truce with their own history, undermining tradition and making their own rules. Texans are nothing if not solitary, even together in a crowded theater in Lufkin, Texas, hosting Mandy Patinkin for an a cappella thunderstorm performance. Or on the beaches of Mustang Island, where laws don’t apply. Or huddled against the desert cold in distant Marathon for a fire-lit music festival.

In Reverb, TX, Harlin Anderson takes you to each of these places and more, carving a traveler’s path between major highways and larger-than-life cities. His travelogue is part memoir, part confession–a journal of growth, loss, and exploration. This is a brutal, breathtaking debut, and it will leave you wandering for years to come.