1985Pulitzer 1986
Lonesome Dove
Larry McMurtry · 1936–2021 · USA
Why it matters
Two aging former Texas Rangers drive a stolen cattle herd from the Rio Grande all the way to Montana, an epic journey that exposes the frontier's romance and its brutality in equal measure. McMurtry's Pulitzer winner became the Western novel's defining, myth-busting epic.
At a glance
epichistorical fiction
Difficulty 5/10fast pace864 pagesA sprawling cast and long journey structure require patience despite otherwise accessible prose.
Deep dive
McMurtry set out to write the anti-Western that debunked the genre's myths — and produced the book that resupplied them for another fifty years.
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