Now a major motion picture starring Joaquin Phoeinix,John C. Reilly & Jake Gyllenhaal
Shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize 2011
Hermann Kermit Warm is going to die.
Across 1000 miles of Oregon desert his assassins,the notorious Eli and Charlies Sisters,ride - fighting,shooting,and drinking their way to Sacramento. But their prey isn't an easy mark,the road is long and bloody,and somewhere along the path Eli begins to question what he does for a living - and whom he does it for.
The Sisters Brothers pays homage to the classic Western,transforming it into an unforgettable ribald tour de force.
Filled with a remarkable cast of losers,cheaters,and ne'er-do-wells from all stripes of life-and told by a complex and compelling narrator,it is a violent,lustful odyssey through the underworld of the 1850s frontier that beautifully captures the humor,melancholy,and grit of the Old West and two brothers bound by blood,violence,and love.
Publisher: Granta BooksISBN: 9781847083197Number of pages: 336Weight: 247 gDimensions: 198 x 129 x 21 mm
MEDIA REVIEWS
Blackly hilariousConfirms deWitt as one of the most talented young writers aroundA witty noir version of Don Quixote... a blackly comic fable about the usual wild west themes: emptiness,loneliness and the hollow lure of goldUnsettling,compelling and deeply strange... this book explores a world in which civilisation,as we know it,has not yet emerged. It has much to say about the business of being humanSo good,so funny and so sadIf Cormac McCarthy had a sense of humor,he might have concocted a story like Patrick DeWitt's bloody,darkly funny western The Sisters Brothers... (DeWitt has) a skillfully polished voice and a penchant for gleefully looking under bloody bandages. (It's) smooth and seamless,shot through with dark humor,pared and antique without being Baroque.A boldly eloquent adventure and a novel about a man trying to live a better lifeA masterclass on the twists of the mind and heartA rip-roaring romp around the Wild West... deWitt is a proper American novelist who is well on the way to greatnessThe sharpest novel published this year was The Sisters Brothers by Patrick DeWitt. Like Flannery O'Connor shot through with the Coen brothers,it was a tonic dash of the cowboy surreal and I loved it.Few narrators this year have been funnier than Eli,one half of Patrick deWitt's eponymous duo The Sisters Brothers. His drawling,dark,laconic and heartbreaking voice turns a wry Western into a work of great strangeness and verveBold and beautifully simple...it is intermittently moving,consistently very funny,and above all,originalA western that reads like Cormac McCarthy with a better sense of humourA stylistically impressive,darkly comic reworking of the traditional western in Patrick deWitt's Booker-shortlisted story of money revenge and moralityThe adventure is narrated in deadpan style by Eli,who is frequently driven to despair by the activities of his elder brother...Eli emerges as a complex figure; a good man driven to do bad things. And you know you're absorbed in a true western when you find yourself shedding a tear at the death of his horse'This tale of mercenary brothers is often touching,as the gentler of the two men,Eli Sisters,is really searching for love. DeWitt slow his narrative down stylistically but gives his dubious protagonists an engaging enough picaresque journeyThis Booker-shortlisted novel is a playful often surreal take on the classic western,following two homicidalbrothers as they hunt for a man named Hermann during the 1850s gold rushOne of the finest novels I've read in ages and paints the colours of the Wild West as beautifully as a Sergio Leone filmIt's fantastic,you must read it...it's one of those books that just grabs you,its so beautiful and funny and spareI read this after being shortlisted along with Patrick for the Man Booker prize,and for my money it would have been a worthy winner...this story of a pair of sibling killers chasing down their fate crackles with dry wit,its brutal violence studded with moments of heartbreaking humanity. In Eli Sisters,DeWitt creates a narrator who lives and breathes; a monster with whom the reader sympathises,a lost soul searching for virtue in the compassionless world of gold rushes and gunfights. A wise,funny,startling book about dreams both noble and ragged,and of the lengths we'll go to fulfil themWe all loved this book...one of the best books ever on the bookclub.An enjoyable read,and its overall strangeness seems to tease the reader into seeking deeper meaningsdeWitt's inspired,many-layered yarn about loneliness,friendship and love is as entertaining and as stylistically accomplished as it is deeply movingPatrick deWitt's superb second novel was deservedly shortlisted for last year's Man Booker prize. It's highly original and darkly comic,and has the offbeat quality of a Coen brothers filmOne of the most extraordinary books I've ever readGripping and darkly humorous,the deadpan writing style is a joy and the is sharpA grippingly propulsive yarn set in the gold-rush era of the American West and flecked through with dark humourdeWitt's playful,almost surreal take on the classic western follows two violent brothers as they wreak havoc during the 1850s goldrushA rip-roaring,gun-slinging gallop through 19th Century America... Warm,darkly comic and thrillingly adventurous,you won't be able to put this downThe language is extraordinarily good,very funny and eloquentThis novel is about two killer hitmen who you actually find yourself falling in love withAn unexpected pleasure... It has the stripped power of a fable,yet derives its persuasiveness from the voice of the narratorI loved it so much,I read it twice! It's funny as well as poignant. It's so beautiful and fascinating. I adored it(It) has a lovely fragility and an emotional core that rises above its clever premise and styleA superb Western mixed with profound life lessons
Patrick deWitt
Author of the Man Booker Prize-shortlistedThe Sisters Brothers...
Visit the Patrick deWitt author page
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