Credit: DEL REY / AUTHOR PHOTO BY EDWIN TSE

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DEL REY / AUTHOR PHOTO BY EDWIN TSE

“Wanderers is a work of fiction,” reads the edition notice at the start of Chuck Wendig’s new novel. “Names, characters, places, and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.”

As boilerplate legal disclaimers go, okay! Sure! Except with Wanderers, it’s… kind of a lie? The good kind of lie. A lie that, like Wanderers, brings truth into the light.

With honor and distinction, Erik Henriksen served as the executive editor of the Portland Mercury from 2004 to 2020. He can now be found at henriksenactual.com.