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There is a lot of excitement in the unknown, in heading off into the wilderness with only
That’s what makes the stories you’ll find on this list of 28 of the best Western
Some of these books are classics, some are contemporary, and some are a combination of genres
(And if you like your Westerns really weird, I recommend one of my favorite books: Motherfucking Sharks
There are several great articles about this, including How Hollywood Whitewashed the Old West, Forgotten Heroes: Black
Westerns have historically been disproportionately written by white authors partly because they are often racist towards people
So it should be mentioned that a lot of these books, because they portray actual U
It’s about two young men in the West looking to escape violence after each fighting in
The narrator of this novel is 111-year-old Jack Crabb, so you know he has seen a lot
Orphaned at a young age, Jack is raised by the Cheyenne people
As an adult conflicted about his identity, he encounters such historical figures such as General Custer, Wyatt
This is a post-apocalyptic/Western crossover, about a young girl named Delta of Dead River
Set in Texas at the end of the Civil War, The Which Way Tree follows a teen
Abandoned by their father after a panther kills their mother, Benjamin’s wounded sister Samantha vows to
She is so determined, all Benjamin can do is follow and hope to keep her safe
But being a young woman alone in the West is not a safe place to be, and
But their mark proves more elusive and time consuming than they expected, and one of the brothers
This novel was a Pulitzer Prize finalist! It’s about a young Swedish boy who travels on
Walking across the country is difficult to do today, so you can only imagine all he will
The book has three generations of narrators who remember — or seek to learn — the stories of the
But the harsh climate and realities of the lands will test their strength, and irreparably change them
Jesse James was a famous outlaw and Robert Ford was a young delinquent looking to make a
This is a novel that takes place in space on a desert planet, yet as someone who
It involves the legends and people of Tombstone, Arizona, such as the Earps
But when he rescues a young Black woman named Eddy, he begins to imagine giving it all
Captain Jefferson Kyle Kidd spends his retired days traveling around Texas, reading the news to large audiences
But when he is paid to return a young girl to her relatives, he becomes involved in
But when they fell on hard times and impossible conditions, they supposedly resorted to cannibalism
Leonard was a master of crime stories, whether they’re about cowboys, jewel thieves, or gangsters
This is a collection of action-packed Western stories, including “Three-Ten to Yuma,” which was made into a
In this exciting Western, a gang led by women take advantage of the sexism of society to
Ming Tsu, a Chinese American, was raised by a robber baron to be an assassin
Along the way, he joins up with a group of magical circus performers who help him in
This is a contemporary Western, in that it’s set in present day
But the main character is Darren Mathews, a Black Texas Ranger
It makes McCarthy’s The Road look like a kid’s birthday party
It’s about a teenager who falls in with a gang that includes The Judge, one of
It’s about two lifelong friends who embark from Texas on a cattle drive that will change
This is probably the best Western book series there is, but note that while this is chronologically
This is widely considered to be one of the best Western books of all time, if not
It’s as funny as it is serious, as beautiful as it is gritty
Proulx is a Pulitzer-winning novelist, and these are her superb stories of cowboys, rodeo riders, and more
This collection includes Brokeback Mountain, which was made into the Academy Award-winning movie of the same name
So he drops out of Harvard and heads out west, where he winds up involved with a
It’s about two orphaned children of immigrants who set out into the danger wilds of the
For more Western reads, check out The Rise and Fall of the Western and 100 Must-Read Books of