'a Powerful, Impressive Novel With A Visceral Sense Of Time And Place' - Times 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 Out-manoeuvre 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. 'true Grit Meets Blood Meridian Meets Mulan' - Stuart Neville 'whiskey When We’re Dry Transcends Many Of The Genre's Limitations' - Sunday Times 'the Book Is Clearly A Child Of True Grit... But Whiskey When We’re Dry Plays It Straight And Larison Makes The Reader Believe In The Unlikely Premise Through The Remarkable Skill With Which Jess’ Narrative Voice Is Realised' - Telegraph 'larison Imbues The Romance And Wide-open Spaces Of The Classic Western With Modern Gender And Racial Awareness, Giving Space To Those Left Out Of The Classic Old West Mythos, But The Main Draw Is Jesse’s Narrative Voice, All Folksy Eloquence Peppered With Grit And Determination' - Herald Scotland 'the Punch And Intensity Of The Writing And The Voice Of Jess Are Rather Remarkable...' - Daily Mail

Larison, John, author

South Downs Crime & Mystery

Gas Light Crime & Mystery

Harpenden: No Exit Press

Kamera Books

United Kingdom and Ireland, United Kingdom

London

obscured text front cover and back cover

Shortlisted for the Historical Writers' Association Gold Crown 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 neighbours, she cuts her hair, binds her chest, saddles her beloved mare, and sets off across the mountains 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 those 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 McMurtry'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.

Facing starvation and worse when she is orphaned on her family's 1885 homestead, seventeen-year-old sharpshooter Jessilyn Harney cuts off her hair and disguises herself as a boy to journey across the mountains in search of her outlaw brother.

1 online resource
Online resource; title from PDF title page (EBSCO, viewed May 8, 2019)

2023-10-09