Meet Hughie Youngkin, trapped in Southern California's worst ever firestorm, a smalltown loser with nothing but a stolen mariachi outfit and a battered guitar case. His hopes of becoming a rockstar are in ruins and he's beginning to wish he'd never left Big Springs, Alabama. But his home town doesn't understand him, the girl he loved has left, and his overbearing mother chews over his shortcomings with her Hungryman's portions of barbequed beef at Webster's Steakhouse. So Hughie does what any Johnny Lonely would do; he takes off to find his estranged brother and chase the American Dream. 'Atmospheric, believable, much more than just a good read.' - Denise Robertson MBE, novelist and agony aunt 'Reading Johnny Lonely is funnier than watching a drunk falling over and more poignant than realizing that you're dead.' - Jonathan Trigell, author Boy A and Cham