Bar bands, lounge acts, journeymen guitarists and singers who just need that one hit to become stars. Their world consists of people who look and feel the same night after night, of driving in crowded vans between gigs and dinners and drinks after gigs when the rest of the world is slowly waking up.

It is the world of Al Ward in Willy Vlautin’s The horse. Or it was his world, until bad luck too often robbed him of alcohol, success in life and love. Now he lives in a cabin on his late great-uncle’s mining property in the middle of nowhere in Nevada. He survives on canned soup, beer and memories of real dreams that have come true in the past.

And what memories. As a young child living with a single, hard-working mother, Al’s company was mostly his uncle. His love of music was noticed and he received a guitar for his birthday. It immediately became his best friend. When he wasn’t hanging out with his drinking uncle, who shared his beer and liquor with him.

Al began playing in Reno casino bands and writing songs. Throughout the novel, the song titles tell the stories of his lost loves and the little things he noticed during the nightly drudgery of playing the same music over and over again. Usually with people who didn’t get along. But the joy of making music is ingrained in his story.

Good things have happened to Al over the years, but they never lasted long. Eventually his weary soul had enough and he took refuge in the mining area that his late great-uncle, another male relative who had taken care of him, had left to Al. He has been alone for months.

Then, one winter day, an old horse that appears to be blind appears next to the cabin. Is it real? Why doesn’t it drink the water he gives it, and why doesn’t it try to eat the noodles he cooked for it (apart from the soup, Al had nothing else)?

As Al worries about the horse and thinks about how he can help it or relieve it of its suffering, he becomes aware of his life so far in its entirety.

Al has been given second, third and fourth chances. He has tried each time to take those chances and live a life where he makes music, writes songs and maybe loves someone who loves him back. Even though he or alcohol or circumstances get in the way, he still carries on as best he can.

The end of the novel, like the entire work, shows the value of people carrying on as best they can. The horse is a story about how the good sides of people come out, no matter what happens to them or what mistakes they make.

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If it’s Tuesday, it’s new book day. Links to the following titles lead to The Literate Lizard, the online bookstore of Readers and Book Lovers’ Debtorsprison, while the blurbs come from the publishers.

Japa and other stories by Iheoma Nwachukwu
These eight brutally beautiful stories are filled with fragmented dreams, with sophisticated thieves, misadventures, and displaced characters, all going through a human struggle to anchor themselves in a new home, or sometimes a new reality. This book is about young Nigerian immigrants bilocating, wandering the desert, temporarily becoming Mormon, sneaking through Russia, and yearning for a new life in strange new territories that force them to confront what it means to search for connection far from home.

By Savagery by Alejandra Banca
Alejandra Banca’s devastating debut embraces a generation of displaced young Venezuelan migrants and revels in the noise and beauty of their daily struggle for survival.

The border between us by Rudy Ruiz
Born on the US-Mexico border, Ramón López is determined to go out and pursue the American dream – and he’s not sure if his complicated family circumstances will help or hinder him. The son of immigrants, Ramón’s admiration for his entrepreneurial father is waning as he watches his father’s dreams of success fizzle out. Ramón’s mother is constantly preoccupied with his younger brother, who struggles with mental disabilities. And the outside world is full of dangers and temptations that threaten to derail Ramón’s dreams of making it to New York and becoming a successful artist.

A child from Marlboro Road by Edward Burns
In this debut novel by actor and filmmaker Ed Burns, an Irish-American family is brought to life through the eyes of a 12-year-old boy.

Immigrants and storytellers, cheerful voices and the courage of the Long Islanders – all of this characterizes this colorful Irish-Catholic community in the late 1970s.

Mirage by Nahid Rachlin
“Mirage” is set in modern-day Iran and deals with the complicated relationship between Roya and her identical twin sister Tala.