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Discovery Prize winner for Fiction - 2024 Writers' League of Texas Book Awards

Hank O'Sullivan, a sixty-five-year-old widower, lives a routine life, nursing his loneliness with cocktails at his favorite local bar in Austin, Texas. After a parking lot brawl lands him in jail, a judge sentences Hank to community service, picking up trash along the highway alongside a sixteen-year-old troublemaker, Luis Delgado. Luis has remarkable artistic abilities, but his penchant for sneaking out late at night and trespassing onto rooftops lands him on the same road crew as Hank. These loners form an unlikely friendship, and when Hank tells Luis about his desire to drive to Houston to reconnect with an old flame, Luis asks to tag along. Luis's estranged mother lives in Houston, and he has been dreaming of a reunion. Hank agrees to take Luis with him, setting in motion a raucous trip in a hot pink 1970 Plymouth Barracuda. With humor and a bit of grace, The Codger and the Sparrow is a touching story about an unusual friendship that stretches across generations.