Whiskey

***Whiskey* is bitter to swallow and burns pleasantly as it goes down, but has a lasting, powerful effect. And according to Jess Walter, "Bruce Holbert is a lyrical, soulful chronicler of our ever-changing West."**

Brothers Andre and Smoker were raised in a cauldron of their parents' failed marriage and appetite for destruction, and find themselves in the same straits as adults--navigating not only their own marriages, but also their parents' frequent collision with the law and one another. The family lives in Electric City, Washington, just a few miles south of the Colville Indian Reservation. Fiercely loyal and just plain fierce, they're bound by a series of darkly comedic and hauntingly violent events: domestic trouble; religious fanaticism; benders punctuated with pauses to dry out that never stick.

When a religious zealot takes off with Smoker's daughter, there's no question that his brother--who continues doggedly to try and put his life in order--will join him in attempt to return her. Maybe the venture will break them both beyond repair or maybe it will redeem them. Or perhaps both.

*Whiskey* is the story of two brothers, their parents, and three wrecked marriages, a searching audiobook about family life at its most distressed--about kinship, failure, enough liquor to get through it all, and ultimately a dark and hard-earned grace. With the gruff humor of Cormac McCarthy and a dash of the madcap irony of Charles Portis, and a strong, authentic literary voice all his own, Bruce Holbert traverses the harsh landscape of America's northwestern border and finds a family unlike any you've met before.