Border Songs
Brandon Vanderkool thinks in pictures; he used to think everyone did. Six-foot-eight and dyslexic, he is not an obvious candidate for the Border Patrol, which polices the fonrtier between the United States and Canada, but somehow, he ambles aroudn the forest bird-watching, he seems to stumble upon every illegal immigrant and drug trafficker in the area. Meanwhile his father is dealing with diseased dairy cows, his mother battles encroaching dementia, and their neighbor's daughter Madeline flirts with the cannabis underworld ... Border Songs is an extraordinary love story and a gently satirical celebration of the coincidental and the miraculous. (As described by Bloomsbury, Lynch's UK publisher)
Winner of the Washington State Book Award for Fiction. Finalist for the American Booksellers Association Best Novel, Border Songs was picked as among the Best Books of 2009 by: The Washington Post - The Toronto Star - The St. Louis Post Dispatch - The Oregonian - Amazon.com
"Lynch's comic borderland is not only palpable, it is richly metaphoric. Comparisons with Ken Kesey and Tom Robbins are not only inevitable, they are welcome."
-The Globe and Mail (Canada)
“Wonderful…tender, sad and leavened with wit." Ron Charles, book editor for The Washington Post
"Border Songs" is one of the more inventive and unique novels of recent years. Lynch's dexterous handling of multiple voices and storylines makes Border Songs a book that goes by all too quickly." Rege Behe, The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review
"Lynch observes like a journalist and writes like a poet. ... Brandon is one of the most remarkable characters created by a Northwest author in recent memory."
-Mary Ann Gwinn, Seattle Times book editor
"Enthralling ... Lynch plays exquisitely with his theme of division and its consequences." -Maclean's (Canada)
"A fascinating look at the confluence of small-town life, the global drug trade and illegal immigration, and it places Jim Lynch at the forefront of Northwest writers to watch." -Willamette Week
"Lynch has broken through to the edge of literary stardom."
-Jeff Baker, The Oregonian.