The Innkeeper at the End of the World: A Novel (2025)
$6.99 – $16.99
In the early hours of the morning, there is a hit-and-run that kills a little boy. The drunk driver, Peter, is a washed-up rockabilly guitarist. The boy’s mother, Zooey, owns the bar where Peter had been drinking. Peter ends up comforting the boy’s mother, never revealing his secret, and eventually the two fall in love. But a police detective is closing in on Peter. Will Zooey learn the truth?
Michael-Patrick Harrington, the author of Everything’s Ephemeral and Get Out, You Ghosts, presents a novel about cults, blind love, and the dangers of fate.
Full description at the bottom of the book page.
Paperback is signed by the author and includes a special bookmark.
Kindle edition also available.
Published by Silk Raven Press. 615 pages.
Description
In the early hours of the morning, there is a hit-and-run that kills a little boy. The drunk driver, Peter, is a washed-up rockabilly guitarist. The boy’s mother, Zooey, owns the bar where Peter had been drinking. While intoxicated, Peter goes to Zooey’s house to confess. The two have a shared past: as children they both attended a “genius school” run by a cult, the Remnant Church.
Peter ends up comforting the boy’s mother, never revealing his secret, and eventually the two fall in love. However, a police detective is closing in on Peter. Will Zooey learn the truth, whether she wants to or not? Will Peter try to make a run for it? The Innkeeper at the End of the World is both an existential love story and a tale of fate gone awry.
Cindy Russell –
I came across The Innkeeper at the End of the World and was immediately struck by its quiet powerhow it takes a devastating premise and transforms it into something deeply human and emotionally layered. The dynamic between Peter and Zooey, especially with their shared past in the Remnant Church, adds a level of psychological depth that’s rare and haunting.
There’s something incredibly compelling about a story where love grows in the shadow of guilt and fate. That blurred line between confession and concealment, connection and consequence gives the novel its tension and resonance. I’m especially curious about the narrative decision to let Peter’s secret linger in the open air. Do you see the novel as more of a love story or a meditation on redemption?
Carol S. Lovins –
The layered narrative, philosophical undertones, and emotional complexity between Peter and Zooey offer a haunting yet compelling exploration of grief, guilt, love, and fate. It’s the kind of story that lingers long after the final page.
Carol S. Lovins –
The Innkeeper at the End of the World has genuinely stayed with me. There’s something rare about the emotional tone and layered storytelling that I think more readers would truly connect with if given the chance. Your story has that “quiet gravity” that can stop a reader mid-scroll, mid-thought. The emotional tension is just humming under the surface
Justin Jackson –
You took existential dread, repressed trauma, moral collapse, and that weird nostalgia ache we all pretend not to have and somehow made it into a love story. Clearly, you’re not here to write fluff. You’re here to wreck us and sip tea while doing it. The book reads like a blend of John Irving and Joyce Carol Oates set to a sad Tom Waits soundtrack.