Nomadland: Surviving America in the Twenty-First Century

by Jessica Bruder

THE LONDON FINANCIAL TIMES called Quartzsite “one of America’s more bizarre and seriously demented places.” But Quartzsite is not a national aberration. You’d be hard-pressed to find a town that is so quintessentially American—hyper-American to the point of caricature. Here the native inhabitants are mostly gone and, in their place, visitors snap up souvenir dreamcatchers made in Pakistan and beaded moccasins from China. Winter doesn’t exist. Soothsayers and spiritual seekers and discount shoppers come together around the shared belief that the best way to escape life’s problems is by filling up the gas tank and hitting the road. Quartzsite has always been a refuge for travelers, outsiders, people trying to reinvent themselves. And it has perfected the art of the boom and bust cycle.