Let Him Go

“If there were ever any question about Larry Watson’s reputation as one of the finest writers working today, there shouldn’t be anymore. Not after Let Him Go, Watson’s ninth book of fiction, and his best… . I don’t think I’ve ever read a book that deals so convincingly with the staying power of memory, or of the power of familial love.”

“Let Him Go is as commanding as its title: you will be immediately gripped by the narrow-eyed, big-hearted pursuit of a child in danger. This is a literary thriller of the highest order—on par with Daniel Woodrell’s Winter’s Bone—an unrelenting quest through an unforgiving landscape and deadly family web.”

“A powerful story of two headstrong women, each with an unshakable resolve to hold on to what family means … Bold writing holds the reader’s attention right up to the book’s shattering conclusion. An outstanding work that is sure to expand Larry Watson’s audience of devoted readers. Not to be missed.”

“What emerges most forcefully [in Let Him Go] is the profound, if largely unspoken, love shared by a taciturn man and woman who dig deeply into long-dormant reservoirs of grit… . Superb storytelling from a writer who continues to find a special kind of melancholy poetry in the unforgiving landscape of the mountain states.”

“Spartan prose for a Spartan tale of badlands justice set in North Dakota and eastern Montana in the fall of 1951. Larry Watson’s writing is the principal pleasure here. The story is simple, ageless… . The sort of book that puts the shine back on genre as an adjective to describe fiction.”

“In Let Him Go, Larry Watson evokes the deepest kind of suspense: that based upon the fact that humans are unpredictable and perhaps ultimately unknowable—even to their most intimate associates. This fierce, tense book is beautifully written, with spare and economical prose, out of which blooms a vivid and uncompromising portrait of the modern West. A brilliant achievement.”