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A Novel
by Elizabeth Gonzalez James
Book Reviewed by:A dazzling magical realism western in the vein of Cormac McCarthy meets Gabriel García Márquez, The Bullet Swallower follows a Mexican bandido as he sets off for Texas to save his family, only to encounter a mysterious figure who has come, finally, to collect a cosmic debt generations in the making.
In 1895, Antonio Sonoro is the latest in a long line of ruthless men. He's good with his gun and is drawn to trouble but he's also out of money and out of options. A drought has ravaged the town of Dorado, Mexico, where he lives with his wife and children, and so when he hears about a train laden with gold and other treasures, he sets off for Houston to rob it—with his younger brother Hugo in tow. But when the heist goes awry and Hugo is killed by the Texas Rangers, Antonio finds himself launched into a quest for revenge that endangers not only his life and his family, but his eternal soul.
In 1964, Jaime Sonoro is Mexico's most renowned actor and singer. But his comfortable life is disrupted when he discovers a book that purports to tell the entire history of his family beginning with Cain and Abel. In its ancient pages, Jaime learns about the multitude of horrific crimes committed by his ancestors. And when the same mysterious figure from Antonio's timeline shows up in Mexico City, Jaime realizes that he may be the one who has to pay for his ancestors' crimes, unless he can discover the true story of his grandfather Antonio, the legendary bandido El Tragabalas, The Bullet Swallower.
A family saga that's epic in scope and magical in its blood, and based loosely on the author's own great-grandfather, The Bullet Swallower tackles border politics, intergenerational trauma, and the legacies of racism and colonialism in a lush setting and stunning prose that asks who pays for the sins of our ancestors, and whether it is possible to be better than our forebears.
Coming soon
Is a son responsible for the sins of his father? Is it possible to escape your family's legacy, and can one ever truly right the wrongs of the past? Through evocative text and looping timelines, The Bullet Swallower by Elizabeth Gonzalez James asks readers these questions in the form of a redemption story that is frightening and fulfilling in equal measure...continued
Full Review
(701 words)
(Reviewed by Rose Rankin).
Kelli Jo Ford, Plimpton Prize-winning author of Crooked Hallelujah
I won't soon forget The Bullet Swallower, a rich, sparkling novel that raises questions of destiny and who pays the debts of our fathers and their fathers before them. Alive with the people, landscape, and fauna of the Texas-Mexico borderlands, Elizabeth Gonzalez James' novel captured my imagination, then took up residence in my heart. Mary Pauline Lowry, author of The Roxy Letters
One Hundred Years of Solitude meets Lonesome Dove. A gunslinging Western laced with magical realism that illuminates the complicated history between Texas and Mexico, and the impacts of colonialism and generational trauma. The Bullet Swallower is the historical novel of our time because it asks: "What do we owe for the crimes of our ancestors?" A masterpiece! Xochitl Gonzalez, New York Times bestselling author of Olga Dies Dreaming
An utterly original, wild ride rendered by Gonzalez James' masterful hand that turns the traditional redemption narrative on its head. In cracking open her own family legends, The Bullet Swallower brings to vibrant, three dimensional life the people and history of the Mexican and Texas border. Full of heart and humor, the magic in this book is not what is invented, but that it makes you wonder what it is, in all our histories, we may have forgotten?
In Elizabeth Gonzalez James's novel The Bullet Swallower, a group of Texas Rangers pursue the protagonist, Antonio Sonoro, with maniacal zeal. The most dangerous member of the posse tortures and murders innocent civilians as a warning to Sonoro, crossing the Rio Grande and attacking Mexican citizens with impunity. Set in the mid-1890s, the novel captures the brutality and extra-legal tactics often employed by the Texas Rangers, particularly in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
Founded in 1823 by Stephen F. Austin, the Texas Rangers — originally just a group of 10 men — spent their first decades fighting Native American tribes and Mexicans in the territory of Texas as white settlers arrived in greater numbers. They ...
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