A Prayer for Travelers

A Prayer for Travelers is the debut novel of American writer Ruchika Tomar, published in 2019 by Riverhead Books. The novel won the 2020 PEN/Hemingway Award.

It is a mystery and coming-of-age story, revolving around the friendship between two young women, Cale and Penny, who live in a small town near the California–Nevada border, and the sudden disappearance of one of them.

Reception
Adrienne Gaffney in the San Francisco Chronicle described the book as "a portrait of two young women coming of age in a world full of hard men [...] where the brutality of the landscape is matched by the circumstances that her characters live in". Chris Vola on PopMatters gave a rating of 8/10 to the book, highlighting "the visual world that Tomar conjures, a marvelously drawn background of creosote and rabbitbrush, [...] with enough personality to rival any of the ragged souls who populate [...] gas stations, seedy bars, and hotel rooms." while at the same time suggesting that "ome of Tomar’s stylistic choices leave something to be desired".

The judges of PEN/Hemingway, awarding the book as best debut novel in 2020, called it "a remarkable piece of writing, astute in style and structure and also in the story that it tells."