who works and lives on a rundown race track in Portland, Oregon, and befriends a failed race horse. The Sunday Herald stated, "Lean on Pete confirms his status as one of the most emotionally charged writers in America..." Eileen Battersby of the Irish Times stated "As one boy’s journey, Lean on Pete is as real as blood: as a novel it is remarkable. Willy Vlautin, romantic and realist, has written something special that will make you shudder, weep, rage and wonder at how such things happen and do, and how some individuals such as Charley can suffer them, absorb the grief, and somehow survive. How good is contemporary US fiction? This good: catch your breath good.” Cheryl Strayed of The Oregonian states "By the time ‘Lean on Pete’ reaches its sweet but unsentimental end, Charley Thompson isn't a character in a novel, but a boy readers have come to love. ‘Lean on Pete’ riveted me. Reading it, I was heartbroken and moved; enthralled and convinced. This is serious American literature." Lean on Pete won two Oregon Book Awards: the Ken Kesey Award for Fiction and the Peoples Choice Award. A movie based on the book was released in 2017. Accolades He received the Silver Pen Award from the University of Nevada, Reno Friends of the University Library in 2007 and was inducted into the Nevada Writers Hall of Fame in 2016. Influences Vlautin has cited writers such as John Steinbeck, Raymond Carver, Barry Gifford, Sam Shepard, and William Kennedy as influences. As a songwriter, he has been inspired by the work of Tom Waits, Shane MacGowan, John Doe, and Australian musician Paul Kelly . Selected bibliography The Motel Life (2006) Northline (2008) Lean on Pete (2010) The Free (2014) Don't Skip Out On Me (2018) The Night Always Comes (2021) External links References Living people American country singer-songwriters 21st-century American novelists American male novelists American alternative country singers 1967 births Musicians from Reno, Nevada Reno High School alumni 21st-century American male writers People from Scappoose, Oregon Singer-songwriters from Nevada Singer-songwriters from Oregon