Soon to be a Netflix film premiering on August 15th 2025 “Willy Vlautin is not known for happy
endings but there’s something here that defies the downward pull. In the end Lynette is pure
life force: fierce and canny and blazing through a city that no longer has space for her and
it’s all Portland’s loss.” — Portland Monthly Magazine Award-winning author Willy Vlautin
explores the impact of trickle-down greed and opportunism of gentrification on ordinary lives
in this scorching novel that captures the plight of a young woman pushed to the edge as she
fights to secure a stable future for herself and her family. Barely thirty Lynette is
exhausted. Saddled with bad credit and juggling multiple jobs some illegally she’s been
diligently working to buy the house she lives in with her mother and developmentally disabled
brother Kenny. Portland’s housing prices have nearly quadrupled in fifteen years and the owner
is giving them a good deal. Lynette knows it’s their last best chance to own their own home—and
obtain the security they’ve never had. While she has enough for the down payment she needs her
mother to cover the rest of the asking price. But a week before they’re set to sign the loan
papers her mother gets cold feet and reneges on her promise pushing Lynette to her limits to
find the money they need. Set over two days and two nights The Night Always Comes follows
Lynette’s frantic search—an odyssey of hope and anguish that will bring her face to face with
greedy rich men and ambitious hustlers those benefiting and those left behind by a city in the
throes of a transformative boom. As her desperation builds and her pleas for help go unanswered
Lynette makes a dangerous choice that sets her on a precarious frenzied spiral. In trying to
save her family’s future she is plunged into the darkness of her past and forced to confront
the reality of her life. A heart wrenching portrait of a woman hungry for security and a home
in a rapidly changing city The Night Always Comes raises the difficult questions we are often
too afraid to ask ourselves: What is the price of gentrification and how far are we really
prepared to go to achieve the American Dream? Is the American dream even attainable for those
living at the edges? Or for too many of us is it only a hollow promise?
