Larry Watson

A series of events in a small western town changes the lives of David Hayden, his sheriff father, his mother, and their Sioux housekeeper, as they discover the truth about family loyalty

A Novel

Montana 1948

In 1951 North Dakota, years after losing her son in a horse riding accident, Margaret Blackledge seeks to retrieve her grandson from the daughter-in-law who ran off with another man but finds her efforts challenged by her reluctant husband and the boy's stepfamily.

Let Him Go

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 unreasonably 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 physical power and constrained by it, and how perceptions of someone in a small town can shape her life through the decades.

The Lives of Edie Pritchard

Sonja Skordahl, a Scandinavian immigrant, finds herself torn between two very different men--Henry House, her orchardist husband and father of her two children, and Ned Weaver, an internationally famous artist who uses her as a model--who seek to possess her, in a novel set against the backdrop of rural Wisconsin. By the author of Montana 1948. Reprint. 40,000 first printing.

Orchard

"Calvin Sidey is a cowboy of the old-school, no-guff sort--steely, hardened, with his own personal code. It's the 1960s, and he's living off the grid in a stifling trailer on the prairie when his adult son, Bill, seeks his help. A mostly absentee father, and a virtual no-show as a grandfather, Calvin nevertheless reluctantly agrees to stay with his grandchildren for a week. He decamps for his son's dark and musty basement, to the small town where he once was a mythic figure, and soon enough problems arise: a boy's attentions to seventeen-year-old Ann are increasingly aggressive, and a group of reckless kids portend danger for eleven-year-old Will. Calvin only knows one way to solve a problem: the Old West way, in which scores are settled, ultimatums are issued, and your gun is always loaded. In the changing culture of the 1960s, Calvin isn't just a relic, he's a wild card and a threat. With the crisp, restrained prose for which Larry Watson is revered, As Good As Gone is moving without being sentimental, a powerful story of a man increasingly at odds with the world. This is Larry Watson at his best."--

As Good as Gone

On Thanksgiving Day 1962, the shooting of a young woman sets off a chain of unsettling events in small-town Willow Falls, Minnesota, all revolving around Matthew Garth, who becomes obsessed with the shooting victim and with the apparent lavish lifestyle of a local doctor's family.

American Boy

It is the end of the school year. Jack Nevelson, the town sheriff, is called on to investigate a car which has gone off the road on the way out of the town. But what he finds is not straightforward and he is soon faced with scandal, lies and intrigue.

White Crosses

A collection of stories on the family of a county sheriff in Montana. Julian Hayden traces his early years as a struggling rancher, forced to take the law into his hands, Outside the Jurisdiction is on his sons, punished by a neighboring sheriff for molesting Indian girls, and Enid Garling is on Hayden's wife.

Justice

Valerie Laken

Nick Petrie

Jane Hamilton

Reed Farrel Coleman

Jennifer Morales

In this gritty anthology, fourteen mystery stories show the seedier side of the Wisconsin city beyond beer, butter burgers, and Laverne & Shirley. Akashic Books continues its award-winning series of original noir anthologies, launched in 2004 with Brooklyn Noir. Each book comprises all-new stories, each one set in a distinct neighborhood or location within the respect city. Now, fourteen authors who’ve experienced life in the Cream City share its mysteries in Milwaukee Noir. With stories from: Jane Hamilton, Reed Farrel Coleman, Valerie Laken, Matthew J. Prigge, Shauna Singh Baldwin, Vida Cross, Larry Watson, Frank Wheeler Jr., Derrick Harriell, Christi Clancy, James E. Causey, Mary Thorson, Nick Petrie, and Jennifer Morales. Praise for Milwaukee Noir “Luxuriate in the seedy, wallow in the angry and shiver at the horrors that surely await you around the corner . . . The sheer localness of Milwaukee Noir is superb, and the seediness of many characters here would qualify them for membership in a Tom Waits song.” —Milwaukee Journal Sentinel “A very strong collection of short fiction. . . . A richly textured collection that is, by turns, gripping, thought provoking, and simply entertaining.” —Booklist “The violent, dark stories in this anthology fit the bill perfectly with the intention, as editor Hennessy writes, to be social commentary . . . . Tales by Jane Hamilton and Christi Clancy stand out, evidence that ordinary people can get swept up in hatred, even if they did not start out living with violence, drunkenness, or poverty.” —Library Journal “Milwaukee bookseller and writer Hennessy does justice to the harsher aspects of his hometown in this fine anthology . . . The 14 contributors show that violence is not a prerequisite to crafting a haunting depiction of despair . . . The selections make the different neighborhoods, seedy or otherwise, come to life, even for those who have never set foot in them.” —Publishers Weekly “Fourteen free-wheeling stories document the grit and glory of Milwaukee . . . A nod to Milwaukee’s blue-collar heritage, a frank look at racial disharmony, and a peek at the future make Hennessy’s collection a find for fans of urban noir.” —Kirkus Reviews

Milwaukee Noir

Poetry. Larry Watson vividly animates the world of memory, as one might expect from an accomplished fiction writer, but the language here also exhibits the ear and lyrical dexterity of a fine poet. These poems contain many great stories, but also deliver knockout lyric turns and strains of melancholy music. This is the author's first full-length poetry collection, containing many poems that have been previously published in various distinguished literary magazines, such as Gettysburg Review, Chicago Quarterly Review, New England Review, and American Review, as well as recent new work.

Late Assignments

More than forty years after his best friend Gene's father shoots and kills a charismatic state senator in Bismarck, North Dakota, and then commits suicide, a writer attempts to unravel the mystery behind one man's tragic actions through a series of short stories in which he tries to make sense of senseless acts and examines their impact on two teenage friends and the girl they both love. 25,000 first printing.

Sundown, Yellow Moon

Rendered outlaws by an ill-fated hunting trip, brothers Wesley and Frank Hayden pursue a legacy shared by each generation of their family, from hard-bitten patriarch Julian through Gail, a sheriff's spirited wife. Reprint.

The author of Montana 1948 explores the early years of a powerful Western family in these “beautifully written” linked stories (USA Today). Larry Watson’s bestselling novel Montana 1948 was acclaimed as a “work of art,” a prize-winning evocation of a time, a place, and a family (San Francisco Chronicle). Justice is the stunning prequel that illuminates the Hayden clan’s early years, and the circumstances that led to the events of Montana 1948. With the precision of a master storyteller, Watson moves seamlessly through the decades and among the strong and hard-bitten characters that make up the Hayden family, and in the process opens an evocative window on the very heart of the American West. “An engrossing story of love, familial relationships, and secrets . . . re-creates the vivid beauty of Big Sky country.” —Booklist “Filled with rugged prose sometimes as biting as a northern plains wind.” —The Washington Post “Surprises and scenes of dramatic power punctuate the narrative . . . Throughout, Watson writes with ruthless honesty about his characters’ stunted dreams, unpredictable emotions and outbursts of senseless violence, showing once again that he understands not only the West but the untamed hearts that have roamed it.” —Publishers Weekly (starred review)

Stories

In the wake of a third student's murder, reticent Wanekia High School teacher Peter begins keeping a disturbing journal of the community's actions and his own that makes him realize his personal ambivalence toward violence. Reprint.

In a Dark Time

“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 asks him to stay with his grandchildren, Ann and Will, for a week while he and his wife are away. So Calvin agrees to return to the small town where he once was a mythic figure, to the very home he once abandoned. But trouble soon comes to the door when a boy’s attentions to seventeen-year-old Ann become increasingly aggressive and a group of reckless kids portend danger for eleven-year-old Will. Calvin knows only one way to solve problems: the Old West way, in which scores are settled and ultimatums are issued and your gun is always loaded. And though he has a powerful effect on those around him--from the widowed neighbor who has fallen under his spell to Ann and Will, who see him as the man who brings a sudden and violent order to their lives--in the changing culture of the 1960s, Calvin isn’t just a relic; he’s a wild card, a danger to himself and those who love him. In As Good as Gone, Larry Watson captures our longing for the Old West and its heroes, and he challenges our understanding of loyalty and justice. Both tough and tender, it is a stunning achievement.

Following the inner life of one man over the course of nearly forty years, a tender tale of faith, obsession, and enduring love follows the remarkable relationship between Paul, a precocious observer of human life, and Laura Petit, a gifted and independent poet nine years older than Paul. By the award-winning author of Montana 1948. Reader's Guide included. Reprint.

Larry Watson

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