Description

SHORTLISTED FOR THE MAN BOOKER PRIZE, a darkly funny, offbeat western about a reluctant assassin and his murderous brother.

‘The Sisters Brothers confirms deWitt as one of the most talented young writers around’ Sunday Times

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 who he does it for.

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. It beautifully captures the humour, melancholy, and grit of the Old West, through a tale of two brothers bound by blood, violence, and love.

‘Superb … deWitt has ensured another unforgettable pair their place in fictive lore’ Sunday Telegraph

NOW A MAJOR MOTION PICTURE STARRING JAKE GYLLENHAAL, JOHN C. REILLY AND JOAQUIN PHOENIX

Publisher Review

Blackly hilarious * The Times * Confirms deWitt as one of the most talented young writers around * Sunday Times * A witty noir version of Don Quixote… a blackly comic fable about the usual wild west themes: emptiness, loneliness and the hollow lure of gold * Financial Times * Unsettling, 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 human * Independent on Sunday * So good, so funny and so sad * Irish Times * If 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. * Los Angeles Times * A boldly eloquent adventure and a novel about a man trying to live a better life * Metro * A masterclass on the twists of the mind and heart * Scotsman * A rip-roaring romp around the Wild West… deWitt is a proper American novelist who is well on the way to greatness * Dazed & Confused * The 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. — Andrew O’Hagan 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 verve * Daily Telegraph * Bold and beautifully simple … it is intermittently moving, consistently very funny, and above all, original — AD Miller * New Statesman * A western that reads like Cormac McCarthy with a better sense of humour * Sunday Express * A stylistically impressive, darkly comic reworking of the traditional western in Patrick deWitt’s Booker-shortlisted story of money revenge and morality * Metro * The 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’ — Alfred Hickling * Guardian * 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 journey — Lesley McDowell * Sunday Herald * This Booker-shortlisted novel is a playful often surreal take on the classic western, following two homicidal brothers as they hunt for a man named Hermann during the 1850s gold rush * Week * One of the finest novels I’ve read in ages and paints the colours of the Wild West as beautifully as a Sergio Leone film * Bury Free Press & Haverhill Echo * It’s fantastic, you must read it … it’s one of those books that just grabs you, its so beautiful and funny and spare — Meera Syal * ITV 1’s Loose Women * I 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 them — Stephen Kelman * Untitled Books * We all loved this book…one of the best books ever on the bookclub. * TV Book Club * An enjoyable read, and its overall strangeness seems to tease the reader into seeking deeper meanings — Angus Clarke * The Times * deWitt’s inspired, many-layered yarn about loneliness, friendship and love is as entertaining and as stylistically accomplished as it is deeply moving — Eileen Battersby * Irish Times * Patrick 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 film — Simon Shaw * Mail on Sunday * One of the most extraordinary books I’ve ever read — Amanda Ross * Stylist * Gripping and darkly humorous, the deadpan writing style is a joy and the is sharp * Crack * A grippingly propulsive yarn set in the gold-rush era of the American West and flecked through with dark humour * Sunday Business Post * deWitt’s playful, almost surreal take on the classic western follows two violent brothers as they wreak havoc during the 1850s goldrush * Sunday Times * A rip-roaring, gun-slinging gallop through 19th Century America … Warm, darkly comic and thrillingly adventurous, you won’t be able to put this down — Sara Montgomery, head of Guardian Books The language is extraordinarily good, very funny and eloquent — Caroline Quentin * Daily Express * This novel is about two killer hitmen who you actually find yourself falling in love with * No. 1 Magazine * An unexpected pleasure… It has the stripped power of a fable, yet derives its persuasiveness from the voice of the narrator — Books of the Year * Spectator * I loved it so much, I read it twice! It’s funny as well as poignant. It’s so beautiful and fascinating. I adored it — Caroline Quentin * Yours * [It] has a lovely fragility and an emotional core that rises above its clever premise and style — Daniel Handler * New York Times * A superb Western mixed with profound life lessons — Doc Brown interview * Waitrose Weekend *