The Sisters Brothers

Longlist 2013

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.

(From Publisher)

About the Author

Patrick DeWitt’s writing has appeared in several US magazines and anthologies. His first novel, Ablutions, was published by Granta Books in 2009. He had previously published a short book of random writings and bad advice, Help Yourself Help Yourself. He has worked as a labourer, a clerk, a dishwasher and a bartender. His second novel, The Sisters Brothers won the Rogers Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize, the Govenor General Literary Award and was shortlisted for the 2011 Man Booker Prize. He lives with his wife and son in Portland, Oregon.

Librarians’ Comments

DeWitt uses the Western genre to explore themes of existentialism and morality.

2011 Governor General’s Award winner and shortlisted for the 2011 Man Booker Prize. 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 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 humour, melancholy and grit of the Old West and two brothers bound by blood, violence, and love.

A brilliant, revisionist telling of the chaos and insanity that was the Klondike Glodrush in 1850s Oregon and California. By turns hilarious and violent, the sisters’ brothers are infamous assassins hired to find and kill the likeable inventor Hermann Kermit Warm.

The strong writing, compelling storyline and rich characters made this title a favourite among library staff and patrons alike.

Winner of the 2011 Governor General’s Literary Award for fiction, this novel received also the 2011 Rodgers Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize, and nominations for the Scotiabank Giller Prize, the Man Booker Prize and the Walter Scott Prize.

The Sisters Brothers is the fresh, bold, and utterly compelling story of the journey taken by the sisters and their brothers; killers-for-hire Eli and Charlie to San Francisco – and their last victim. As narrated by Eli in language whose formality and precision seem at odds with the casual brutality of his life, the novel becomes an examination of Eli’s moral struggle with violence its consequences.

Darkly comic tale of two hit men through Gold Rush California and Oregon in search of their last hit. Hilarious, inventive and quirky.