The Third Door (PB) (2019)

BOBBY KAUFMANN IS A COCAINE DEALER IN TEXAS' BIGGEST PARTY TOWN...

23 years old and an alcoholic, Bobby Kaufmann spends his time drinking and making hand-to-hand sales. With one day bleeding into the next, Bobby begins to understand the futility of his way of life. Not lost on him is that every single woman he knows is less interested in him for who he is than what he can get them. For the first time, this state of affairs begins to bother him. So, he resolves to change.

The novel opens depicting Bobby's terrifying youth as his mother submits to an enormous drug habit. The rest of the novel chronicles an unsettling eight weeks in which the young adult Bobby, mired in the conflicts of his dead-end youth, tries to make the transition from professional criminal to a legitimate owner of a bar on Austin's famed Sixth Street. Although more resolved than ever to end his self-destructive ways, the real question finally emerges--is Bobby Kaufmann capable of change?

Born and raised in Houston, Jim Williams received a BA in political science from the University of Houston, followed by an MA in political philosophy from the University of Chicago. Williams is a sixth-generation Texan who has lived in Austin for more than twenty-five years. He is currently hard at work on his second novel.