DAVD RABE has been hailed as one of America’s greatest living playwrights. He is the author of many widely performed plays, including
The Basic Training of Pavlo Hummel, Sticks and Bones, In the Boom Boom Room, Streamers, Hurlyburly, and
The Dog Problem. Four of his plays have been nominated for the Tony Award, including one win for Best Play. He is the recipient of an Obie Award, the American Academy of Arts and Letters Award, Drama Desk Award, and the New York Drama Critics Circle Award, among others. His numerous screenwriting credits include
I’m Dancing as Fast as I Can, Casualties of War, Hurlyburly, and
The Firm.
Rabe is the critically acclaimed author of the novels Dinosaurs on the Roof and Recital of the Dog, and a collection of short stories, A Primitive Heart. Born in Dubuque, Iowa, Rabe lives with his family in Northwest Connecticut.
“[A]n erotic love story about two young people from opposite ends of the earth caught up in events far beyond their control....a meditation on the devastating effects armed conflict has on society, and on the psychological and emotional toll it exacts from soldiers and civilians alike....darkly comic...Rabe’s portrait is multidimensional and engaging...he reveals himself to be as gifted a novelist as he is a playwright....Girl by the Road at Night is Rabe’s cry, and it deserves to be heard.” —Philip Caputo, The New York Times Book Review
“A real piece of art, David Rabe’s skillful, mature Girl by the Road at Night tracks the deep interplay of sex and violence in two lives, in two cultures, and in the human urge towards deliverance. With rich supportive images of cosmetics and pajamas, and insects, rats and snakes, it elicits both tender and reptile emotions. It’s a story of American-style innocence gaining a slice of redemption at a huge price. Don’t hesitate to read it.” —Thomas Moore, author of Care of the Soul and Writing in the Sand
“Nobody writes like David Rabe. Nobody. He has a supernatural ability to tap into the hardwiring of his characters and render their impulses in language that is at once startlingly precise and dreamily off the wall. Rabe's vision of Vietnam, from his great early plays to this strange, dark rapturous sort-of love story, has a tragic consistency: the beveled innocence of the young American soldier meeting an incomprehensible Otherness that can't be turned away from or forgotten. I loved Girl by the Road at Night, and I can't wait to read it again.” —Anthony Giardina, author of White Guys
“By turns intimate, brutal, and mordant, Girl by the Road at Night illuminates the confusion of one raw youth as he confronts the larger confusions of war.” —Stewart O'Nan, author of The Names of the Dead
“Rabe never romanticizes his characters. This is no Romeo-and-Juliet story of unrequited love and desire. Instead, Whitaker and Lan play out their roles in both tender and brutal ways. A powerful statement about sex, war and identity.” —Kirkus