God's Country - by Percival Everett (Paperback)

About the Book

"The unlikely narrator through this tale of misadventures is one Curt Marder: gambler, drinker, cheat, and would-be womanizer. It's 1871, and he's lost his farm, his wife, and his dog to a band of marauding hooligans. With nothing to live on but a desire to recover what is rightfully his, Marder is forced to enlist the help of the best tracker in the West: a black man named Bubba"--

Book Synopsis

"Mr. Everett is successful combining heart with rage. . . . The novel sears."--David Bowman, The New York Times Book Review

This 'comic and fierce' novel spoofs the classic Western format with the dark, incisive humor we've come to expect from the acclaimed National Book Award- and Pulitzer Prize-winning author of James

One of the earliest works anchoring Percival Everett's illustrious career, God's Country is by turns funny, shocking, and devastating. The unlikely narrator through this tale of misadventures is one Curt Marder: gambler, drinker, cheat, and would-be womanizer. Unfortunately, he's a coward. When he sees a band of "Injun impersonators" pillaging his home, he has "half a mind to ride down that hill and say somethin', but it was just half a mind after all." It's 1871, and he's lost his farm, his wife, and his dog to a band of marauding hooligans. With nothing to live on but a desire to recover what is rightfully his, Marder enlists the help of the best tracker in the West: a Black man named Bubba.

With an introduction from renowned novelist Madison Smartt Bell, this is the perfect edition to add to your growing Percival Everett collection. As NPR's Michael Schaub noted, "It's impossible to predict what the next Everett book will bring, but it's always a safe bet that it's going to be great."

Review Quotes

"This wild novel of the West is comic and fierce, turn by turn."
--Nicholas Delbanco, author of What Remains

"An outrageously funny, alarmingly serious, highly enjoyable novel."
--Amanda Heller, The Boston Globe

"Mr. Everett is successful combining heart with rage. . . . The novel sears."
--David Bowman, The New York Times Book Review

"I loved this book. God's Country is like no Western I've ever read before: a wonderfully strange and darkly hilarious brew of Kafka and García Márquez, of Twilight Zone and F-Troop. Percival Everett has written . . . a Wild West road trip that challenges our assumptions about what human dignity really means."
--Bret Lott, author of Jewel: A Novel

Praise for Percival Everett:

"Percival Everett's talent is multifaceted, sparked by a satiric brilliance that could place him alongside Wright and Ellison as he skewers the conventions of racial and political correctness."
--Publishers Weekly

"Everett is one of the most unpredictable and original novelists working today."
--Michael Schaub, NPR

"Everett is a true American genius, a master artist."
--Carole V. Bell, Oprah Daily

"It's hard . . . to imagine a novelist today with fresher eyes than Percival Everett."
--Christopher Borrelli, Chicago Tribune

About the Author

Percival Everett is the author of over 30 books since his debut, Suder, was released in 1983. His modern classics include I Am Not Sidney Poitier, So Much Blue, Glyph, and The Trees. He lives in Los Angeles and teaches at The University of Southern California. Everett was a Pulitzer Prize finalist in 2020 with his novel Telephone. He received the Ivan Sandrof Lifetime Achievement Award at the 2022 National Book Critics Circle Awards, the 2023 PEN America Award for Dr. No, and the 2024 National Book Award and 2025 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction for James.