The Sisters Brothers — A Novel book cover by Patrick deWitt

The Sisters Brothers

Adult • Mystery • Thriller & Suspense • Crime Fiction • Thriller
A Novel
Two brothers are hitmen for the Commodore Journey from Oregon City to Sacramento Eli questions life choices along the way Set against the gritty Old West backdrop Complex relationships with fate and family

Hermann Kermit Warm is going to die. The enigmatic and powerful man known only as the Commodore has ordered it, and his henchmen, Eli and Charlie Sisters, will make sure of it. Though Eli doesn’t share his brother’s appetite for whiskey and killing, he’s never known anything else. But their prey isn’t an easy mark, and on the road from Oregon City to Warm’s gold-mining claim outside Sacramento, Eli begins to question what he does for a living-and whom he does it for.

With The Sisters Brothers, Patrick deWitt pays homage to the classic Western, transforming it into an unforgettable comic tour de force. Filled with a remarkable cast of characters-losers, cheaters, and ne’er-do-wells from all stripes of life-and told by a complex and compelling narrator, it is a violent, lustful odyssey through the underworld of the 1850s frontier that beautifully captures the humor, melancholy, and grit of the Old West and two brothers bound by blood, violence, and love.

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Edition information

Book details

Publisher
Ecco
Publication date
2012
Print length
336 pages
Language
English
ISBN
978-0062041289

Mystery + Thriller & Suspense + Crime Fiction

Reader guide

What to Know Before Reading The Sisters Brothers

In this award-winning novel, Eli and Charlie Sisters are hired assassins on a journey to find Hermann Kermit Warm, a man destined to die. As Eli grapples with his brother's violent nature and his own moral dilemmas, Patrick deWitt crafts a darkly comic tale that captures the absurdity and grit of the Old West.

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About the author

Patrick deWitt

Patrick deWitt

Patrick deWitt is the author of the critically acclaimed Ablutions: Notes for a Novel, as well as The Sisters Brothers, which was short-listed for the Booker Prize. Born in British Columbia, he has also lived in California and Washington, and now resides in Portland, Oregon. His newest novel is Undermajordomo Minor.
A favorite quote

“We are all of us in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars.”

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