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by Shann Ray
A novel about America's hidden desire for regeneration through violence, and the ultimate cost of forgiveness and the demands of atonement.
As Evelynne Lowry, the daughter of a copper baron, comes of age in early 20th century Montana, the lives of horses dovetail with the lives of people and her own quest for womanhood becomes inextricably intertwined with the future of two men who face nearly insurmountable losses - a lonely bull rider named Zion from the Montana highline, and a Cheyenne team roper named William Black Kettle, the descendant of peace chiefs.
An epic that runs from the Sand Creek Massacre of 1864 to the ore and industry of the 1930s, American Copper is a novel not only about America's hidden desire for regeneration through violence but about the ultimate cost of forgiveness and the demands of atonement. It also explores the genocidal colonization of the Cheyenne, the rise of big copper, and the unrelenting ascent of dominant culture. Evelynne's story is a poignant elegy to horses, cowboys both native and euro-american, the stubbornness of racism, and the entanglements of modern humanity during the first half of the twentieth century. Set against the wide plains and soaring mountainscapes of Montana, this is the American West re-envisioned, imbued with unconditional violence, but also sweet, sweet love.
"Starred Review. Devotees of the genre will find Ray's lyric, often poetic saga to be equal to McCarthy's Border Trilogy and Harrison's Legends of the Fall." - Kirkus
"American Copper is a complex tale of discrimination, hostility, bloodshed, and romance. Sensuous imagery abounds in this novel's vividly described landscape of the American West." - Booklist
"The story is melodramatic, with Josef resembling a villain out of a silent movie, and the characters frustratingly drift in and out of the story, which ends on an anticlimactic note many readers may find unsatisfying." - Publishers Weekly
"Ray's poetic sensibility shows in his careful prose; its spare style may recall Jim Harrison's Legends of the Fall, while the range of history covered is similar to that of Shannon Burke's Into the Savage Country. A Western epic with appeal for literary readers, this seems likely to become a classic Montana read." - Library Journal
"Brings to mind Cormac McCarthy and Annie Proulx ... lyrical, prophetic, brutal yet ultimately hopeful." - Dave Eggers
"Tough, poetic, and beautiful." - Sherman Alexie
"Ray's range of characterizations reminds us that despite its mythic tropes, the West has been a place of mind-boggling identities and all-too-human tragedies for a very long time. I was reminded as much of the tribal folklore of James Willard Schultz as the fearless genre-bending of Dorothy M. Johnson, and the pitch-perfect naturalism of James Welch. No small feat." – Malcolm Brooks
"Some books devour their readers; other books are written to be devoured. With an emotional heart as enormous as the Montana mountains, Shann Ray's American Copper is that rare book that does both. In one breath you'll marvel at Ray's poetic lyricism, with the next you'll grunt at his toughness. And in between you'll turn the pages impulsively. With American Copper, Ray announces himself as one of the finest writers working today." – Peter Geye
This information about American Copper was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Shann Ray grew up in Montana, played college basketball at Montana State University and Pepperdine University and professional basketball in Germany. Among other places, his work has appeared in the Best New Poets and The Better of McSweeney's anthologies, and been selected as notable in the Best American Nonrequired Reading and Best of the West, and as a finalist for the Western Writers of America Spur Award. He now lives with his wife and three daughters in Spokane, Washington where he teaches leadership and forgiveness studies at Gonzaga University. American Copper is his debut novel.
Ray's first book, a story collection entitled American Masculine, published by Graywolf as Winner of the Bread Loaf Writers' Conference Bakeless Prize, was named by Esquire as one of Three Books Every Man Should Read, and selected by Kirkus as a Best Book, Best Short Story Collection, and Editor's Choice selection. It won an American Book Award, the High Plains Book Award for Best First Book and Best Short Story Collection. The author received an NEA Fellowship in Creative Writing in 2012.
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