The Crazies - by Amy Gamerman (Hardcover)

About the Book

"This is a story about a fight between neighbors when the folks next-door are on the Forbes 400 list and you're the guy fixing an irrigation ditch in a vest mended with duct-tape. Big Timber, Montana is one of the windiest towns in one of the windiest states in the country. Mountain gap winds howl down from the Crazies like a coyote, rattling windows in their frames and nudging semi-trucks sideways on Interstate 90. Most locals learn to live with the wind. Rick Jarrett sought his fortune in it. A fifth-generation rancher deep in debt, he didn't much believe in climate change. But like the prospectors who rushed to the Treasure State to mine copper and gold, he believed in his right to make a living off his goddamn land. His decision to erect Crazy Mountain Wind would spark fifteen years of legal tussles, pitting him against a Texas oil magnate, a flashy Vegas criminal defense attorney, the heir to the largest privately held company in America, and a former cop committed to conserving and preserving this last best place on earth. As the years dragged on, the battle over Crazy Mountain Wind would devolve into a fight over the values that define us as Americans, pulling in an ever wider cast of characters, including a San Francisco private equity firm, strict constructionist Public Service Commissioners, and a Crow activist determined to regain his tribe's right to climb the mountains they hold sacred. A riotous patchwork portrait of a community of cowboys and billionaires and billionaire cowboys, The Crazies is a heartbreaking story about what it means to be a good neighbor and how to care for a place you love."--

Book Synopsis

"Yellowstone meets Matlock" (Tom Clavin) in this dazzling tale of land lust and the American West, chronicling the rise and fall of a wind farm that triggers a 21st century range war between a struggling fifth-generation rancher and the billionaires next door.

Most locals in Big Timber, Montana, learn to live with the wind. Rick Jarrett sought his fortune in it. Like his pioneer ancestors who staked their claims in the Treasure State, he believed in his right to make a living off the land--and its most precious resource, million-dollar wind.

Trouble was, Jarrett's neighbors were some of the wealthiest and most influential men in America, trophy ranchers who'd come west to enjoy magnificent mountain views, not stare at five-hundred-foot wind turbines.

So began an epic showdown that would pull in an ever-widening cast of characters, including a Texas oil and gas tycoon, a roguish wind prospector, a Crow activist fighting for his tribe's rights to the mountains they hold sacred, and an Olympic athlete-turned-attorney whose path to redemption would lead to Jarrett's wind farm. A wildly entertaining yarn, the brawl over Crazy Mountain Wind would become a fight over the values that define us as Americans, even as the most coveted rangeland in the West was threatened by forces more powerful than anything one man could muster: record drought, raging wildfires, dwindling snowpack.

"An epic tale of greed and resilience," The Crazies "has the power to leave you feeling walloped, whip-sawed, and wildly invigorated, all within the same breath" (Kevin Fedarko, New York Times bestselling author of A Walk in the Park). It's an exquisitely reported, ruggedly beautiful western for a warming planet--and a bighearted inquiry into how you can love a place so much you risk destroying it.

Review Quotes

"[A] tale of greed and grit.... If you didn't have an opinion about billionaires in this country right now, you surely will after reading this book."
--The Colorado Sun

"A Western drama with enough twists, clashes, and colorful characters to rival Yellowstone."
--Cowboys & Indians

"Amy Gamerman's riveting narrative reads like Yellowstone meets Matlock. This gripping story of a dispute over land rights is also a tale of the ongoing struggle to both preserve and exploit the American West."
--Tom Clavin, #1 New York Times bestselling co-author of The Heart of Everything That Is

"An absolutely wild ride through the untamed frontier of American culture. Gamerman brings alive the modern West in a breakneck story that's outlandish but also almost mythically familiar. It turns out that the old fights over the frontier and the nature of American freedom aren't over."
--Christopher Leonard, New York Times bestselling author of The Lords of Easy Money

"It's impossible to say what's more compelling about this marvelous book: the story itself--an epic tale of greed, resilience, and hypocrisy playing out against the backdrop of one of the most stunningly gorgeous pieces of real estate in the entire world--or the skill with which Amy Gamerman has masterfully woven a set of complex themes into narrative that boasts all the page-turning compulsiveness of a true-to-life thriller."
--Kevin Fedarko, New York Times bestselling author of A Walk in the Park

"Ms. Gamerman... conveys the craziness of this saga with empathy and vivid detail."
--The Wall Street Journal

"Empire of Pain, but for the Wild West."
--Amazon Book Review, Editors' Pick

"The Crazies has the sweep of The Grapes of Wrath and the storytelling power of Wallace Stegner's The Big Rock Candy Mountain."
--Rinker Buck, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Oregon Trail

"Excellent. A timely telling of change and inequality in the American West with reporting I trust, characters I'm drawn to, and writing that sparkles."
--Anna Sale, host of the podcast Death, Sex & Money and author of Let's Talk About Hard Things

"A fascinating story about the new energy economy. If you want to understand why change does--or doesn't--happen in America, read The Crazies."
--Elizabeth Kolbert, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Sixth Extinction

About the Author

Amy Gamerman has written about real estate and culture for The Wall Street Journal for more than two decades. The Crazies is her first book.