New Releases by Thomas McGuane

From the highly acclaimed author of Ninety-two in the Shade and Cloudbursts comes a collection of alternately playful and exquisite essays—including seven collected here for the first time—borne of a lifetime spent fishing. "Thomas McGuane writes about fishing better than anyone else in the history of mankind." —Jim Harrison, New York Times bestselling author of Legends of the Fall The forty extraordinary pieces in The Longest Silence take the reader from the tarpon of Florida to the salmon of Iceland, from the bonefish of Mexico to the trout of Montana. They introduce characters as varied as a highly literate Canadian frontiersman and a devoutly Mormon river guide and address issues ranging from the esoteric art of tying flies to the enduring philosophy of a seventeenth-century angler to the trials of the aging fisherman. Both reverent and hilarious by turns, and infused with a deep experience of wildlife and the outdoors, The Longest Silence sets the heart pounding for a glimpse of moving water and demonstrates what dedication to sport reveals about life.

From the acclaimed author of Ninety-two in the Shade: Set in the seedy corners of Key West, the remote shore towns of the Bahamas, and the unforgiving landscape of Big Sky Country, a “uniformly brilliant” collection (The New York Times Book Review) of familial dysfunction, emotional failure, and American loneliness that celebrates the human ability to persist through life''s absurdities For more than four decades, Thomas McGuane has been heralded as an unrivaled master of the short story. Now the arc of that achievement appears in one definitive volume—forty-five stories, including two new and six previously uncollected pieces. These are stories of people on the fringes of society, whose twisted pasts meddle with their chances for companionship, moving from the hilarious to the tragic and back again. “A master of the short story... Cloudbursts is clearly the product of a life''s worth of thought and feeling and experience; it ought to be savored.” —The New York Times Book Review

A man sails into the Gulf from Key West in the magisterial, penultimate story from Gallatin Canyon by the acclaimed award-winning author who has been called the “Flannery O’Connor of the New West.” • A Vintage Shorts “Short Story Month” Selection “Errol Healy was going sailing to evade custody in one of the several institutions recommended for his care.” Haunted by memories of his best friend’s death and the witch, Miss Florence Ewing, Errol sets forth from Key West alone aboard the Czarina. Alcohol-drenched and steeped in excruciating loneliness, Errol faces the harshest conditions of climate in the Gulf. An Ebook Short

Tiring of the company of junkies and burn-outs, Thomas Skelton goes home to Key West to take up a more wholesome life. But things fester in America''s utter South. And Skelton''s plans to become a skiff guide in the shining blue subtropical waters place him on a collision course with Nichol Dance, who has risen to the crest of the profession by dint of infallible instincts and a reputation for homicide. Out of their deadly rivalry, Thomas McGuane has constructed a novel with the impetus of a thriller and the heartbroken humor that is his distinct contribution to American prose. "Full of surprises and rewards and an exhilaration one feels only rarely." Newsweek on Ninety-Two in the Shade.

Set in Big Sky Country, a triumphant collection of stories written with a comic genius in the vein of Twain and Gogol—from from the acclaimed author of Ninety-two in the Shade and Cloudbursts, “one of America''s best short-story writers of the last 50 years" (The Boston Globe) These stories attest to the generous compass of Thomas McGuane''s fellow feeling, as well as to his unique way with words. In this collection, filled with grace and humor, the ties of family make for uncomfortable binds: A devoted son is horrified to discover his mother''s antics before she slipped into dementia, and a father''s outdoor skills are no match for a change in the weather. But complications arise equally in the absence of blood, as when lifelong friends on a fishing trip finally confront their deep dislike for each other. Or when a gifted traveling cattle breeder succumbs to the lure of a stranger''s offer of easy money. McGuane is as witty and large-hearted as we have ever known him, and Crow Fair is a jubilant, thunderous confirmation of his status as a modern master.

A collection of thirteen stories of great range, verve, and humor from the highly acclaimed author of Cloudbursts and Ninety-two in the Shade Thomas McGuane''s first short story collection is "a cornucopia of McGuane''s grace, humor, gusto, and smarts" (Philadelphia Inquirer), and McGuane is a writer who “makes the page, the paragraph, the sentence itself a record of continuous imaginative activity.... [He is] an important as well as a brilliant novelist" (The New York Times Book Review). Includes the stories: • The Millionaire • A Man in Louisiana • Like a Leaf • Dogs • A Skirmish • Two Hours to Kill • The Rescue • Sportsmen • Little Extras • Partners • The Road Atlas • Flight • To Skin a Cat

In these nine intensely compelling essays, with a new preface, bestselling author Tom McGuane shares remarkable stories of the exceptional horses and horsemen he has known as he learned roping, cutting, dallying, and ultimately trust. He addresses the special and profound relationship between humans and horses: what horses reveal about us, what we can learn from them, what they learn from us, and the symbiosis that results from a perfect match. The relationship between rider and horse runs deeper than any show or job, and McGuane’s work with both animals and humans over the years provides a rich and nuanced depth of understanding about every level of the bond that he explores in his elegant, award-winning prose.

An anthology of the best motorcycle literature from top authors including Hunter S. Thompson, Thomas McGuane, Robert Pirsig, Roald Dahl, Alberto Granado, and T. E. Lawrence Sons of Thunder is a high-octane anthology that brings together the best in motorcycle writing. This unique collection includes seminal pieces from Hunter S. Thompson and Robert Pirsig. Melissa Holbrook Pierson and Thomas McGuane offer probing reflections on the relationship between rider and machine. Roald Dahl waxes poetic on the second-hand Ariel 500cc he bought as a sixteen-year-old. There are classic dispatches from the road including T. E. Lawrence''s travels on his Brough Superior, Alberto Granado''s storied rides with Che Guevara, and Theresa Wallach''s overland journey with Florence Blenkiron from London to Cape Town. This anthology also offers hidden gems, such as Mike Carter''s midlife meditation "Uneasy Rider" and Jim Perrin''s "Travels with a Harley." Facing more than just the elements of the road, these riders simultaneously take physical and emotional journeys, surrendering to the mental release a bike brings. Danger lurks around every bend, but above all is the rider''s desire for speed, the constant craving to go faster and further than one has ever gone before. At times literary and lyrical, at others tactile and thrilling, Sons of Thunder takes to the road with an all-star roster of writers who delve into the pleasures and perils of motorcycles and celebrate the emotional bond between rider and machine.

This brilliant story of one man’s struggle to change his life, from the acclaimed author of Ninety-two in the Shade and Cloudbursts, is “full of wry wit and graceful depictions of family relations, first love and the stark beauty of the Montana prairie” (Wall Street Journal). Joe Starling, a man teetering on the edge of spectacular failures—as an artist, rancher, lover, and human being—is also a man of noble ambitions. His struggle to right himself is mesmerizing, hilarious, and profoundly moving. "No American novelist provides greater pleasure—sentence by sentence, paragraph by paragraph, page by page—than this Montana icon." —Chicago Sun-Times

A ruefully funny novel of embattled manhood, set in Big Sky Country—by the highly acclaimed author of Ninety-two in the Shade and Cloudbursts, with writing “so dazzlingly acute and seemingly effortless that it infuses Nothing but Blue Skies with exuberance and wit."—Chicago Tribune This high-spirited and fiercely lyrical novel chronicles the fall and rise of Frank Copenhaver, a man so unhinged by his wife''s departure that he finds himself ruining his business, falling in love with the wrong women, and wandering the lawns of his neighborhood, desperate for the merest glimpse of normalcy. The result is a Montana where cowboys slug it out with speculators, a cattleman''s best friend may be his insurance broker, and love and fishing are the only consolations that last. "Vibrant with the pleasures of ironic language, play and chase, and quick with broken-hearted humor."—Los Angeles Times Book Review

The unforgettable story of a hero who goes from Michigan to Montana on a demented mission of courtship—from the acclaimed author of Ninety-two in the Shade and Cloudbursts, a “writer of the first magnitude.... The preternatural force, grace, and self-control of his prose recall Faulkner" (The New York Times Book Review). As a citizen, Nicholas Payne is not in the least solid. As a boyfriend, he is nothing short of disastrous, and his latest flame, the patrician Ann Fitzgerald, has done a wise thing by dropping him. But Ann isn''t counting on Nicholas''s wild persistence, or on the slapstick lyricism of Thomas McGuane—highlights include a ride on a homicidal bronco and an apprenticeship to the inventor of the world''s first highrise for bats. The result is a tour de force of American Dubious.

A funny, rueful, and beautifully rendered portrait of American manhood on the rocks from the highly acclaimed author of Cloudbursts and Ninety-two in the Shade In life Lucien Taylor has made several mistakes, but the two most grievous are as follows: leaving his wife and son to take up with his old flame, Emily; and putting up Emily''s bail when she is arrested for murder. The upshot is that Lucien is left stranded in Montana, with a malodorous hot spring and a squandered sense of purpose. As told by Thomas McGuane, Lucien''s attempt to recoup his losses makes for a book that says volumes about the lives of dogs and falcons, the yearnings of sons for fathers, and the skeptical truce that men and women sometimes reach when they get tired of fighting.

A novel about a former soldier in Big Sky Country whose life is spiraling out of control, from the acclaimed author of Ninety-two in the Shade and Cloudbursts, who is "among the most arresting and fascinating [writers] of his generation" (San Francisco Chronicle). In McGuane''s first novel set in his famed American West, Patrick Fitzpatrick is a former soldier, a fourth-generation cowboy, and a whiskey addict. His grandfather wants to run away to act in movies, his sister wants to burn the house down, and his new stallion is bent on killing him: all of them urgently require attention. But increasingly Patrick himself is spiraling out of control, into that region of romantic misadventure and vanishing possibilities that is Thomas McGuane''s Montana. Nowhere has McGuane mapped that territory more precisely—or with such tenderhearted lunacy—than in Nobody''s Angel, a novel that places him in a genre of his own.

The unforgettable story of a housepainter turned doctor in Big Sky country who finds himself on a darkly funny journey to salvation in this “irrepressibly comic and optimistic” novel (The New York Times Book Review) from the acclaimed author of Ninety-two in the Shade and Cloudbursts Berl Pickett is living in the small town of Livingston, Montana. The son of Pentecostal rug-shampooers, Pickett has never been the social toast of the town, but when he is accused of negligent homicide in the death of his former lover, he finds himself ostracized by his colleagues and realizes just how small his little village truly is. But fortunately for Berl, the very thing that sets him apart—his inability to follow the pack—proves to be his saving grace. With this inglorious hero, McGuane has created an unforgettable voyager.

From the acclaimed author of Ninety-two in the Shade and Cloudbursts—the stories of Gallatin Canyon are rich in the wit, compassion, and matchless language for which Thomas McGuane is celebrated. Set mostly in famed Big Sky Country, McGuane brings us an "astonishing" (The New York Times Book Review) collection in which place exerts the power of destiny. A boy makes a surprising discovery skating at night on Lake Michigan; an Irish clan in Massachusetts gather around their dying matriarch; a battered survivor of the glory days of Key West washes up on other shores. Several of the stories unfold in Big Sky country: a father tries to buy his adult son’s way out of virginity; a convict turns cowhand on a ranch; a couple makes a fateful drive through a perilous gorge. McGuane''s people are seekers, beguiled by the land''s beauty and myth, compelled by the fantasy of what a locale can offer, forced to reconcile dream and truth.

Collected interviews with the author of Ninety-two in the Shade, The Sporting Club, and other novels

Charles Lindsay''s grandfather taught him to fly-fish when he was nine years old. Ever since, in pursuit of trout and solitude, he has immersed himself in the clear, rushing waters of the American West. Fly rod in hand, he participates in the ancient rituals between predator and prey. At times photographing beneath the surface of the water, Lindsay literally enters the world of the trout. In this close observance of the cosmos within the river, he explores the fundamental relationship of all life to water. The photographs in Upstream illuminate a primitive world of elemental beauty and fractured light--abstract and utterly in motion. At the dawn of the twenty-first century, with wilderness under siege and humanity increasingly removed from nature, Lindsay uses his camera to express the enduring vitality of the natural world. Thomas McGuane, avid fly-fisherman, author, and frequent contributor to "Sports Illustrated" and "Riverwatch," brilliantly explores these themes in his accompanying text.

Set on the majestic stage of Montana cattle country, an unforgettable drama from the acclaimed author of Ninety-two in the Shade and Cloudbursts involving blood, money, sex, vengeance, and a cross-dressing rancher "[McGuane''s] sentences are like no one else’s, crisp and spare, yet somehow baroque [and] perpetually balance the picaresque against the sublime." —The New Yorker Sunny Jim Whitelaw, a descendent of pioneers and owner of a large bottling plant, may have died, but he has no intention of relinquishing control: his will specifies that no one gets a cent unless his daughter Evelyn reconciles with her estranged husband, Paul. But Evelyn is a strong-willed woman, fiercely attached to the land, whose horses transport her to a West she feels is disappearing, while Paul is a suave manipulator, without scruples, intent on living well. The Cadence of Grass is renewed evidence that McGuane is one of the finest writers we have, capable of simultaneously burnishing and demolishing the mythology of the West while doing rope tricks with the English language.

The most important new literary journal to emerge since Granta, Open City has published some of the best work by major writers and artists such as Mary Gaitskill, Denis Johnson, Jeff Koons, David Foster Wallace, Irvine Welsh, Terry Southern, Patrick McCabe, Sam Lipsyte, and David Berman. Edited by the writers Thomas Beller and Daniel Pinchbeck and originally published by the late Robert Bingham, writing from Open City has been included in many prestigious anthologies, including Best American Short Stories and The Pushcart Prize. Known for launching the careers of today''s best new writers, the editors are also committed to printing important unpublished work by writers from past eras, such as Richard Yates, Delmore Schwartz, Jim Thompson, Cyril Connolly, Edvard Munch, and Gregor von Rezzori. With its innovative and daring mix of the old and the new, Open City combines undiscovered writing by classic authors with a fascinating portrait of a literary generation in the making.

Charles Lindsay''s grandfather taught him to fly-fish when he was nine years old. Ever since, in pursuit of trout and solitude, he has immersed himself in the clear, rushing waters of the American West. Fly rod in hand, he participates in the ancient rituals between predator and prey. At times photographing beneath the surface of the water, Lindsay literally enters the world of the trout. In this close observance of the cosmos within the river, he explores the fundamental relationship of all life to water. The photographs in Upstream illuminate a primitive world of elemental beauty and fractured light--abstract and utterly in motion. At the dawn of the twenty-first century, with wilderness under siege and humanity increasingly removed from nature, Lindsay uses his camera to express the enduring vitality of the natural world. Thomas McGuane, avid fly-fisherman, author, and frequent contributor to "Sports Illustrated" and "Riverwatch," brilliantly explores these themes in his accompanying text.

" Les personnages des treize textes ici réunis courtisent sans cesse le désastre, et, de fait, y laissent quelques plumes. Comme si pour eux la vie ne brillait de tous ses feux que lorsqu''elle était la plus menacée. Comme si le chaos était le signe même de la vie. Du Montant à la Louisiane, treize fictions qui cultivent la veine noire, à l''affût du mystère, du comique dérisoire de l''existence, de cet instant magique où une vie bascule. Alors seuls des chiens de chasse, des canards en vol ou bien un cheval semblent être le dernier fil qui relie à la vie. L''Amérique aux mille facettes toujours en toile de fond. "

A collection of three novels by the author of Nothing but Blue Skies features The Bushwhacked Piano, Nobody''s Angel, and Keep the Change.