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Powell's Staff: New Literature in Translation: December 2022 and January 2023 (0 comment)
It may be a new year, this may be a list of new books, but our love for literature in translation hasn’t changed at all, and we are so pleased to be enthusiastically recommending these recent releases. On this list, you’ll find a Spanish novel where controversy swirls around a Coca-Cola billboard...
Read More»
  • Kelsey Ford: From the Stacks: J. M. Ledgard's Submergence (0 comment)
  • Kelsey Ford: Five Book Friday: Year of the Rabbit (1 comment)

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The Sisters Brothers

by Patrick Dewitt
The Sisters Brothers

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  • Synopses & Reviews
  • Award Excerpt

ISBN13: 9780062041289
ISBN10: 0062041282
Condition: Standard


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Awards

The Rooster 2012 Morning News Tournament of Books Winner

Staff Top 5s 2012 2012 Powell's Staff Top 5s

From Powells.com

25 Books to Read Before You Die: Pacific Northwest Edition

A consummate selection of books written by Pacific Northwest authors.


Staff Pick

Where to start with this strange little book? The Sisters brothers are a pair of killers-for-hire: Charlie, the hard-boiled pragmatist of the pair; Eli, the reluctant, sensitive softy. Assigned their next hit, the pair begins a long and winding journey which leads them in a wildly atypical direction: they befriend their "hit" and events diverge from the normal sordid path. Packed with quirky, dark humor and razor-sharp character studies, The Sisters Brothers presents an unusual treat: a pair of killers with whom you cannot help but sympathize. Just embrace the peculiarity here. Offbeat, idiosyncratic, and odd, this is one novel you won't soon forget. Recommended By Dianah H., Powells.com

This entertaining and heartbreaking story is told by a fabulous narrator, Eli Sisters. Eli and his brother Charlie are hired killers in late 19th-century Oregon and California, and this is the tale of their final job. Recommended By Doug C., Powells.com

Synopses & Reviews

Publisher Comments

Shortlisted for the Booker Prize

Hermann Kermit Warm is going to die. The enigmatic and powerful man known only as the Commodore has ordered it, and his henchmen, Eli and Charlie Sisters, will make sure of it. Though Eli doesn't share his brother's appetite for whiskey and killing, he's never known anything else. But their prey isn't an easy mark, and on the road from Oregon City to Warm's gold-mining claim outside Sacramento, Eli begins to question what he does for a living — and whom he does it for.

With The Sisters Brothers, Patrick deWitt pays homage to the classic Western, transforming it into an unforgettable comic tour de force. Filled with a remarkable cast of characters — 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.

Review

"Mesmerizing... The book seduces us to its characters, and draws us on the strength of deWitt's subtle, nothing-wasted prose. He writes with gorgeous precision about the grotesque: an amputation, a gouged eye, a con in a dive bar, a nauseating body count [without] macho brutishness." Cleveland Plain Dealer

Review

"A twisted delight...Familiar, yes, but never not fresh. Also: creepy and sometimes inscrutable, gory with multiple amputations, rollicking and wistful and roundly winning." Austin Chronicle

Review

"Weirdly funny, startlingly violent and steeped in sadness... It's all rendered irresistible by Eli Sisters, who narrates with a mixture of melancholy and thoughtfulness." Washington Post

Review

"Cinematic, wry and mannered.... Just as much as The Sisters Brothers is about a killing, it's also about the difficulty of holding on to or setting aside all the things a killer has to convince himself of to make his life palatable." Philadelphia City Paper

Review

"By turns hilarious, graphic and meditative, The Sisters Brothers hooked me from page one all the way to 300 — and I could have stayed on for many more." NPR.org

About the Author

Patrick deWitt is the author of the critically acclaimed Ablutions: Notes for a Novel, as well as the novels Undermajordomo Minor and The Sisters Brothers, which was short-listed for the Man Booker Prize. Born in British Columbia, Canada, he has also lived in California and Washington, and now resides in Portland, Oregon.

4.9 20

What Our Readers Are Saying

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Average customer rating 4.9 (20 comments)

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YongJae , February 22, 2013 (view all comments by YongJae)
Two hired gun brothers sent from Oregon to San Francisco to carry out a killing, but of course things don't go as planned. McCarthy comparisons happening already, but the humour makes it feel more like Portis's True Grit (albeit darker), but with McCarthy's unflinching gaze at violence. Put it on the shelf beside Dexter's Deadwood, & Ron Hansen - best literary western I've read in recent memory.

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Katherine Spear , January 30, 2013 (view all comments by Katherine Spear)
Probably the best book I read in 2012. Amazing inner dialogue and narration of the main character.

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Myron , January 18, 2013 (view all comments by Myron)
A wonderful book. deWitt really puts you in the story, you feel as if you are actually there!

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Kaician , January 01, 2013
Fantastic

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lcnance , January 01, 2013
Fantastic historical fiction about two hitmen from California goldrush days. This is one of the only books I read in 2012 that I couldn't put down. Highly recommend.

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Dorothy Van Ness , January 01, 2013
Loved this book. A really entertaining read.

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joi , January 01, 2013 (view all comments by joi)
Best book I read this year. Very entertaining play between the brothers and the people they meet. I could not put it down and read the whole thing in one sitting. Very enjoyable.

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Layne , January 01, 2013
Love the style of this grand story! Brings you into this fantastical world and doesn't let you go---even days after you're finished.

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kedren , January 01, 2013
Love the westerns...grew up on L'Amours...this novel encapsulates the pathos of living on the fringes of the law, the civilized world, the brink of cowboy extermination. To wit, deWitt takes some unexpected turns in plot and prose to keep the pages turning. Sibling yingyang characterization at it's quirky best. Backdrop beginning in Oregon City cinches the reading motive for an OR native such as myself. It would be a fun fantasy to make a movie of this book some day (and artistically infer any of the violent parts); to bring honor to the Sisters Brothers. Eagerly awaiting deWitt's next writ.

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bruceg4747 , January 01, 2013
Cleverly written, this little gem takes the reader into a long gone world of wild west gold and gold prospectors. The dialogue and plot twists are pure genius.

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Jen Travers , January 01, 2013 (view all comments by Jen Travers)
My favorite book of 2012!

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Cyrus OBrien , November 13, 2012 (view all comments by Cyrus OBrien)
Darkly funny, with a sweetly charming narrator who happens to be half of a villainous pair of murderers for hire. There is violence and 19th century sex workers, but as the story takes place in the Wild West-era Oregon and California, so it's not out of place at all. It's not a difficult read, but I zoomed through it so quickly, it left me wishing there was a follow up!

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Mars , August 07, 2012 (view all comments by Mars)
The Sisters fictional tale is a wild western ride from beginning to end. This story portrays the journey of two unreputable cowboys from its native Oregon down to California and back. The writer demonstrates witty banter, an incredibly detailed point of view, and an overall keen sense of hilarity. The tale has you hooked from beginning to end. One of the most interesting aspects of the books are the randomly delightful post-modern breaks from reality in the interludes. The journey that we travel with the Sisters Brothers quite profoundly illustrates the true but knobby connections between siblings. My only qualm with the book was the simplistic lexile. Althought the book is captivating, it isn't exactly challenging. This does not make the book inherently poor and if a lackadaisical read is what you are looking for, with adventure lurking around every page turn, than look no further!

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Susan Squires , August 06, 2012 (view all comments by Susan Squires)
I first heard about this on The Morning News Tournament of Books. It sounded promising and sure enough, I loved it. Dark, funny, unexpected. It made me think of The Sopranos in the way it makes a psychopath into a sympathetic character. I also thought often of my dad's favorite John Wayne movies and how this story twists the strong, silent type into something unexpected and delightfully postmodern.

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Sharon Nixon , August 05, 2012 (view all comments by Sharon Nixon)
I loved this book, BUT it is very violent and most of it senseless. Having said that, it is very well written, humorous, and full of heartbreak. I particularly enjoyed the section and the full blown descriptions of San Fransisco of that era. I have a hard time recommending it to friends that I know would be repulsed by the violence, but those brave ones that venture into it will be rewarded.

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miso , August 04, 2012 (view all comments by miso)
This book came recommended from several sources, so I was excited to pick it up for summer reading. Imagine my surprise to discover that it is actually a western. Well, you don't know me, so you probably couldn't imagine my surprise but I assure you, dear reader, I was surprised, and as it turns out, delighted. I read through this faster than you can say "shoot me." Okay, a little bit slower than that. But folks, this is a great read. Eli, the narrator, instantly stole my heart with his sweet killer ways and I was rooting for him the whole time. Will he find love? Will he mend his ways? That's for you to find out. As bonus, the chapters are short, so typically slow readers such as myself will feel boosts of self-esteem each time they finish one delightful chapter after another. Onward rider!

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Kathleen Shipley , March 20, 2012 (view all comments by Kathleen Shipley)
The sweetness of the narrator of this book, Eli Sisters, makes you love him and understand how all the people he kills had to be killed. A strange kind of empathy,but an important one. It's the kind of book that that reminds you there's no such thing as good guys and bad guys, not an easy task in a western.

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Lea Anna , February 21, 2012 (view all comments by Lea Anna)
An instant favorite. Between the sparse dialog and the thoughts of Eli Sisters, deWitt has put together something so interesting. These brothers are some of the best characters I've read in a long time. I'd recommend this to anyone, especially those who think they don't like Westerns!

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CharLon330 , January 20, 2012
Darkly comedic spin on the Western genre, a satisfying tale of not so good triumphing over out of control.

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maphoss , January 19, 2012
The language in the dialogue of the characters, and especially the meditations of the narrator, Eli Sisters,is at once unique, amusing, unexpected, and altogother elegant for any novel, let alone one depicting the wild west of the 1850s. I was endlessly charmed and pleasantly surprised throughout. I want to talk like that.

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Product Details

ISBN:
9780062041289
Binding:
Trade Paperback
Publication date:
02/14/2012
Publisher:
HARPERCOLLINS PUBLISHERS
Pages:
336
Height:
.70IN
Width:
5.25IN
Thickness:
.75
Illustration:
Yes
Copyright Year:
2012
Author:
Patrick DeWitt
Subject:
General Fiction
Subject:
Literature-A to Z

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List Price:$16.99
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