Whiskey When We're Dry
Books | Fiction / Coming of Age
4.2
(137)
John Larison
Named a Best Book by Entertainment Weekly, O Magazine, Goodreads, Southern Living, Outside Magazine, Oprah.com, HelloGiggles, Parade, Fodor’s Travel, Sioux City Journal, Read it Forward, Medium.com, and NPR’s All Things Considered. "A thunderclap of originality, here is a fresh voice and fresh take on one of the oldest stories we tell about ourselves as Americans and Westerners. It's riveting in all the right ways -- a damn good read that stayed with me long after closing the covers." - Timothy Egan, New York Times bestselling author of The Worst Hard Time From a blazing new voice in fiction, a gritty and lyrical American epic about a young woman who disguises herself as a boy and heads west In the spring of 1885, seventeen-year-old Jessilyn Harney finds herself orphaned and alone on her family's homestead. Desperate to fend off starvation and predatory neighbors, she cuts off her hair, binds her chest, saddles her beloved mare, and sets off across the mountains to find her outlaw brother Noah and bring him home. A talented sharpshooter herself, Jess's quest lands her in the employ of the territory's violent, capricious Governor, whose militia is also hunting Noah--dead or alive. Wrestling with her brother's outlaw identity, and haunted by questions about her own, Jess must outmaneuver those who underestimate her, ultimately rising to become a hero in her own right. Told in Jess's wholly original and unforgettable voice, Whiskey When We're Dry is a stunning achievement, an epic as expansive as America itself--and a reckoning with the myths that are entwined with our history.
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More Details:
Author
John Larison
Pages
416
Publisher
Penguin
Published Date
2019-07-02
ISBN
073522045X 9780735220454
Community ReviewsSee all
"There are some sentences in the book where I wondered if each were the authors favorite."
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Jfly winslow
"Wow. I don’t normally lean toward western inspired stories. And I have to admit, I almost gave up on this one. It was just moving too slow for me. And I wasn’t going to rate it more than a 3. BUT the second half of the book hooked me and did not let me go. My heart was saddened and angered for these characters and the circumstances they had ended up in. The conclusions to Annette and Ingrid’s stories had me close to tears.<br/> I would’ve loved to have more time to experience what the second half of the book had to offer. I have a feeling this story will stick with me for awhile."