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The tragic tale of a Montana family ripped apart by scandal and murder: “a significant and elegant addition to the fiction of the American West” (Washington Post). In the summer of 1948, twelve-year-old David Hayden witnessed and experienced a series of cataclysmic events that would forever change the way he saw his family. The Haydens had been pillars of their small Montana town: David’s father was the town sheriff; his uncle Frank was a war hero and respected doctor. But the family’s solid foundation was suddenly shattered by a bombshell revelation. The Hayden’s Sioux housekeeper, Marie Little Soldier, tells them that Frank has been sexually assaulting his female Indian patients for years—and that she herself was his latest victim. As the tragic fallout unravels around David, he learns that truth is not what one believes it to be, that power is abused, and that sometimes one has to choose between loyalty and justice. Winner of the Milkweed National Fiction Prize
"Characters so real they could walk off the page, virtuoso writing and up-all-night drama."— People From acclaimed novelist Larry Watson, a multigenerational story of the West told through the history of one woman trying to navigate life on her own terms. Edie—smart, self‑assured, beautiful—always worked hard. She worked as a teller at a bank, she worked to save her first marriage, and later, she worked to raise her daughter even as her second marriage came apart. Really, Edie just wanted a good life, but everywhere she turned, her looks defined her. Two brothers fought over her. Her second husband became possessive and jealous. Her daughter resented her. And now, as a grandmother, Edie finds herself harassed by a younger man. It’s been a lifetime of proving that she is allowed to exist in her own sphere. The Lives of Edie Pritchard tells the story of one woman just trying to be herself, even as multiple men attempt to categorize and own her. Triumphant, engaging, and perceptive, Watson’s novel examines a woman both aware of her power and constrained by it, and probes the way perceptions of someone in a small town can shape a life through the decades.
A retired sheriff and his wife go after their young grandson in “a fast-paced story of marital love, family violence and small-town justice” (Pioneer Press). It’s been years since George and Margaret Blackledge lost their son James, and months since his widow, Lorna, took off with their only grandson and married Donnie Weboy. Margaret is resolved to find and retrieve the boy—while George is none too eager to stir up trouble. Soon, the Blackledges find themselves entangled with the entire Weboy clan, who are determined not to give up the boy without a fight. The author of Montana 1948 returns to big sky country in midcentury America with a riveting novel pervaded with a sense of menac...
Peter, a teacher at Minnesota's Wanekia High School, discovers a dark side to his nature when he finds himself morbidly fascinated with the reactions of his community to the murders of three teenage girls.
Mercer County Sheriff Jack Nevelsen has sworn to serve and protect his corner of Montana, which includes his lifelong home, the small tidy town of Bentrock.
“Honest, warm, humane, and at times shocking, As Good as Gone is an achievement of empathy and dignity.” —Smith Henderson, author of Fourth of July Creek Calvin Sidey is always ready to run, and it doesn’t take much to set him in motion. As a young man, he ran from this block, from Gladstone, from Montana, from this country. From his family and the family business. He ran from sadness, and he ran from responsibility. If the gossip was true, he ran from the law. It’s 1963, and Calvin Sidey, one of the last of the old cowboys, has long ago left his family to live a life of self-reliance out on the prairie. He’s been a mostly absentee father and grandfather until his estranged son a...
The prize-winning and bestselling author of "Montana 1948" now renders a novel of faith, obsession, and enduring love about a young boy's fascination with his father's poet mistress.
The author of the acclaimed Montana 1948 “spins charm and melancholy” in this novel of youth and romantic rivalry in 1960s rural Minnesota (Denver Post). Willow Falls, Minnesota, 1962. The shooting of a young woman on Thanksgiving Day sets off a chain of unsettling events in the life of seventeen-year-old Matthew Garth. A close friend of the prosperous Dunbar family, Matthew is present in Dr. Dunbar’s home office when the victim is brought in. The sight of Louisa Lindahl—beautiful and mortally wounded—makes an indelible impression on the young man. Fueled by his feverish desire for this mysterious woman and a deep longing for the comfort and affluence that appears to surround the Dunbars, Matthew finds himself drawn into a vortex of greed, manipulation, and ultimately betrayal. Larry Watson’s tale heart-breaking tale “resonates with language as clear and images as crisp as the spare, flat prairie of its Minnesota setting” (Kirkus Reviews). An Esquire Best Book of 2011
A novel of a father and son relationship in the West.
A girl and her neighbor grow a community from their garden. Grace thinks Larry’s garden is one of the wonders of the world. In his tiny backyard, Larry grows extraordinary vegetables, with Grace as his helper. They water and weed, plant and prune, hoe and harvest. And whenever there’s a problem, Grace and Larry solve it together. Grace soon learns that Larry has big plans for the vegetables in his garden. And when the garden faces its biggest problem yet, Grace follows Larry’s example to find the perfect solution. Amazing things can grow when you tend your garden with kindness.