Outside Valentine

Liza Ward

Jan 2011 · Random House

About this ebook

In 1958, as the snow fell across Nebraska, 19-year-old Charlie Starkweather and his 14-year-old girlfriend, Caril Ann, climbed into a stolen car and blazed into history with a string of bloody murders that stunned America. But why, over thirty years later, does Lowell, a Manhattan antiques collector, still dream of what happened? And who is Puggy, the young girl obsessed by the murders? And then there's Caril Ann's version of the story - from the day she first met Charlie to the end of their rampage on a farm outside the town of Valentine.

Disturbing and intense, Outside Valentine is a story of devastating losses and the transforming power of love.

About the author

Liza Ward is the granddaughter of two of Charles Starkweather's victims. She was born in New York City, and holds degrees from Middlebury College and the University of Montana. Her stories have been published in the Atlantic Monthly, the Georgia Review and the Antioch Review. Her work has also been selected for the 2004 O. Henry Prize Stories and Harcourt's 2004 Best American New Voices collection. She lives in Massachusetts.