Hard Bed Hotel

Andrea Carter 2 stories

Summary

HARD BED HOTEL is a hilarious book, the kind that sets you laughing aloud to yourself long after you’ve put it down… it you CAN put it down, once the plot starts careening towards it unexpected end. After an earthquake shakes up their lives, a bizarre relationship ensues between a lonely, devoted caretaker of Santiago de Chile's General Cemetery and a washed-up Latino rockstar who has taken up residence in the family mausoleum. Astrid de las Nieves, of all people, should know better. How does she mistake the very much alive Jhonny Pretty, for a ghost? Well, the story goes way back. Ghost or no ghost, Jhonny Pretty is just what she's always dreamed of... and more. As for Jhonny, well – he's been singing for pennies at Slaughterhouse Square for years. After the quake renders him indigent and he sets up digs at the cemetery, he takes advantage of Astrid's increasing infatuation, convincing her to leave food, cigarettes and even to rob graves, in exchange for a few bars from old songs, after which he sneaks out to party with friends. Perspective is skewed through the lens of desire. And happiness is a question of perspective. The thin line between the living and the dead is blurred and nothing is as it seems – rockstar is ghostly indigent, pickpocket is tourism executive, shop owner is purveyor of saints, con artist is plastic surgeon and meddling ghost is guardian ang