City of Djinns

September 21, 2020
The opening of Preston’s engrossing latest (after The Wind Comes Sweeping) offers a whiff of mystery as Libby Seager hurls a gun over the side of a cliff into the ocean after driving to the coast from San Jose, Calif. Libby gets into the Mustang she stole earlier that day, and she and Kiwi, her 11-year-old daughter, head south, their only desire to get away from San Jose as fast as possible. They eventually end up at the Sleepy Iguana, a bar in the dusty little town of Sand Flats, where they’re immediately taken under the wing of a fellow patron who senses Libby’s fragility. Kiwi enrolls herself at the local elementary school, while Libby takes a job waitressing at the Sleepy Iguana. Passages touching on the death of Kiwi’s father in Iraq and her mother’s steady disintegration as a parent prepare the way for the events that fateful night in San Jose that prompted Libby to flee. Readers looking for an affecting tale of overcoming—or at least coming to terms with—personal tragedy will be more than satisfied.