RAVEN WOMAN'S TAVERN

A young militiaman undergoes a life-changing ordeal after a run-in with the aging populace of a dilapidated town in this dystopian novel.

The year is somewhere beyond 2031. Warrentown is a run-down, almost deserted ex-logging town in Southwest Washington state. The only business that survives is the tavern kept by Rachel and Jimmy, ageless personifications respectively of the raven and the coyote. Rachel and Jimmy look after the remaining townsfolk. They steal medical supplies from Rainier, the larger, more prosperous neighboring town. Regular patrons of the tavern include Valerie, the kindhearted older woman who tends bar and takes in stray animals; Charlie the Poet, a meditative widower in his twilight years; Crazy Mary, a cackling schizophrenic; and Old Man and his equally old dog, Angie. Life is tough, but Warrentown clings to its sense of community—a fragile existence that is threatened when four off-duty militia soldiers from Rainier come looking for trouble. Of these, only Baylor is uncomfortable with throwing his weight around. Baylor is an unhappy young man but not without empathy. While the other militia members draw Rachel and Jimmy’s ire, Baylor is offered a chance at redemption. Stranded in a supernatural wilderness between towns, he quarrels with his fellow soldiers and sets out alone. Will he find his way back to the precious sanctuary of Warrentown? Koerber writes in the third person, past tense from multiple character viewpoints. The chapters are short, lending a sense of movement to what is essentially a mood piece. The residents of Warrentown are well drawn and sadly evocative of a future in which the most vulnerable members of society have been left to fend for themselves. Baylor is an unlikely three-dimensional protagonist. He is flawed and in many ways unlikable, yet in becoming the focus of the story, he takes readers on an unexpected journey. The author’s writing is concise and rendered with pathos, the dialogue and narrative shifting believably with each character. Though the novel overall verges on being depressing, it has personality, and the dismal future it depicts is offset by inherent human kindness. The deep magic of nature, though broken, lies waiting to be revitalized—or so readers may dream.

A doleful, entropic, and engrossing vision of a near-future America.