Desperation.

KING, Stephen.

Item Number: 116198

New York: The Viking Press, 1996.

First edition of this novel by the author of Salem’s Lot. Octavo, original half cloth. Fine in a fine dust jacket. Jacket art and typography by Mark Ryden. Author photograph by Jill Krementz.

Desperation is a story about several people who, while traveling along the desolated Highway 50 in Nevada, get abducted by Collie Entragian, the deputy of the fictional mining town of Desperation. Entragian uses various pretexts for the abductions, from an arrest for drug possession to "rescuing" a family from a nonexistent gunman. It becomes clear to the captives that Entragian has been possessed by an evil being named Tak, who has control over the surrounding desert wildlife and must change hosts to keep itself alive. They begin to fight for their freedom, sanity and lives before realizing that if they are ever to escape Desperation, they must trap Tak in the place from which he came.