Whiskey When We're Dry

by John Larison

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Pub Date 25 Jul 2019 | Archive Date 25 Jul 2019

Oldcastle Books | No Exit Press

Literary Fiction

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Description

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 neighbours, she cuts her hair, binds her chest, saddles her beloved mare, and sets off across the mountains. Her goal? To find her gun-slinging fugitive 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 of her own, Jess must outmanoeuvre whose who underestimate her, ultimately rising to become a hero in her own right.

Told in Jess’s wholly original and unforgettable voice, the story brims with page-turning Western action, but its approach is modern and nuanced, touching on powerful issues from gender and sexuality to family and identity.

In the sweeping storytelling tradition of Larry McMurty’s Lonesome Dove and Charles Frazier’s Cold Mountain, Whiskey When We're Dry transcends the straight-and-narrow Western to land among the classics.

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 neighbours, she cuts her hair...

Advance Praise

'A tale of the Old West with a fresh perspective' - New York Post

'As in Charles Portis' classic ‘True Grit,' much of the appeal of the telling hangs upon the distinct voice of its narrator, and Jesse's narration combines folksy vernacular with an easy loping gait' - Seattle Times

'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 author of, The Worst Hard Time

'Film and TV rights have already been acquired by the team behind the Planet of the Apes reboot' - Entertainment Weekly

'Mulan meets Deadwood in a Wild West novel narrated by its straight-shooting heroine' - O Magazine

'Told in - Jessilyn's hard-hitting voice, [Whiskey When We're Dry] has the resonance of a high lonesome ballad' - Library Journal

'Larison writes with unrelenting momentum and thoughtfully explores questions of gender identity, power, and violence' - Outside Magazine

'[A] sweeping saga… John Larison's new book plunges readers into the American West while simultaneously reimagining the mythic frontier' - Southern Living

'Larison has developed a pitch-perfect voice for his intrepid heroine' - Publisher's Weekly

'Larison gifts Jess with a strong voice to narrate her own story…. his western epic has wide appeal' - Booklist

'Like Philipp Meyer's The Son or Robert Olmstead's Savage Country, Whiskey When We're Dry draws on Larison's own experiences with the ‘cowboy arts' to paint a vivid portrait of the American West as witnessed by an unforgettable character' - BookPage

'An evocative portrait of the old west with all its grittiness and all its openness' - The Roundtable

'As Jessilyn Harney takes on the great lies and liars with lyrical violence, her voice takes flight, becoming a sustained, forlornly beautiful, mind-bending aria for our age' - David James Duncan, author of, The River Why

'Whiskey When We're Dry is the story of a surprising heroine...Narrated in a voice cobbled out of slang and sagebrush, Larison's novel is a vivid and fast-paced frontier saga' - Kate Manning, author of, My Notorious Life

'A tale of the Old West with a fresh perspective' - New York Post

'As in Charles Portis' classic ‘True Grit,' much of the appeal of the telling hangs upon the distinct voice of its narrator, and...