"Byar’s Genre-Bending Novel Takes Readers through Time and Space- A Review of ‘In the Desert’" by Melissa Flores Anderson

If you’ve never traveled through the American Southwest, it really is a place that looks like an alien landscape. Two years ago, I took a road trip with my husband and son in an RV from northern California down to southern California, across the Tehachapi Pass, into southern Utah, down to the Grand Canyon, and back to California via Barstow. Stretches were the road were flat, dry and barren with Joshua trees spotting the acres as the only plant life while other parts curved through deep, red canyon walls on both sides. For miles much of the drive, we saw little in the way of cities or even towns.

It is this unique setting that is central to Barbara Byar’s new novel “In the Desert,” out from Cowboy Jamboree in March. (Full disclosure, my debut short-story collection “All and Then None of You” was published by Cowboy Jamboree.) Byar is a working-class American writer who has lived in Ireland for more than 25 years, which is about as far from a desert landscapes as one can get with its lush green hills and waterways. But Byar captures the essence of the desert and its desolation with a rich cast of characters that intersect in unpredictable ways, and a story that defies genre. The book is part sci fi, part magic realism, part crime story, part romance and an all-encompassing read that will have readers staying up late into the night to get through one more chapter.

The story opens with Raphael, running, in danger, and readers get little clue as to what or who is after him. We only know he is desperate to get to Jessie, and when he does, we don’t know if this is the end or the beginning. Byar invites us to join Raphael and Jessie on a cold, dry night, through time and space, and back again as she slowly reveals their connection, and an ensemble cast of supporting characters that orbit around them.

The most intriguing throughfare in the story is a mysterious carnival and a magical phone booth. Raphael and Jessie, and their friends, hear stories about it all their lives, and when they are in high school, they stumble upon it without understanding the consequences of it. The concept reminded me of “The Night Circus” by Erin Morgenstern, but with way more grit and darkness mixed in. The vibes of the novel match well with an album I’ve been listening to on repeat for months, Lord Huron’s “Cosmic Selector Vol. 1.” The band’s music tends to be full of woeful longing that matches the mood of Byar’s characters, who are either leaving or being left behind.

Don’t leave this one unread. “In the Desert” will be available from Cowboy Jamboree (for sale via Amazon) on March 3, 2026.

More about the author:

Barbara Byar is a working-class American writer living in Ireland for over 25 years with her two boys and two dogs. Her critically acclaimed, collection of stories: Some Days Are Better Than Ours  was short-listed for the Saboteur Awards. Her short fiction has been published and prize-listed widely, including Pushcart, Best Small Fictions and Best Microfictions nominations.

She was shortlisted for the Irish Book Awards Irish Short Story of the Year in 2023 and longlisted in 2021. A recipient of an Irish Arts Council Literature Bursary and an Agility Award, she is a Fiction Editor at Variant Literature and Editor of MOTEL from Cowboy Jamboree Press. Her debut novel, In the Desert will be published by Cowboy Jamboree Press in March, 2026.