Eternal Night at the Nature Museum

Loss and rediscovery occupy the heart of this adventurous collection. The characters in Eternal Night at the Nature Museum find refuge in strange, repurposed spaces: a middle-aged addict emcees a demolition derby, which transforms into a hostel, then a cult; a church congregates in an abandoned Hardee's; octogenarians escape their nursing home; unsupervised children sell knives to the neighborhood. In a contemporary America blemished with loneliness and late-capitalism, there is no end to the fractured places in which these characters find 'home.' In twenty vivid, rowdy, buoyant stories-ranging from one-page flashes to thirty-page odysseys-Barton assembles a collection of unforgettable safe havens perfect for crashing, even if only for a night.