Winner of the 2021 Spur Award for Historical Novel
Winner of the 2021 Reading the West Award for Best Debut Novel
A powerful and lyrical debut: a botched robbery sets two men on conflicting journeys across the untamed landscape of the American West.
After an attempted horse theft goes tragically wrong, sixteen-year-old Caleb Bentley is on the run with his mean-spirited older brother across the American Southwest at the turn of the twentieth century. Caleb's moral compass and inner courage will be tested as they travel the harsh terrain and encounter those who have carved out a life there, for good or ill.
Wealthy and bookish Randall Dawson, out of place in this rugged and violent country, is begrudgingly chasing after the Bentley brothers. With little sense of how to survive, much less how to take his revenge, Randall meets Charlotte, a woman experienced in the deadly ways of life in the West. Together they navigate the murky values of vigilante justice.
Powerful and atmospheric, lyrical and fast-paced, All Things Left Wild is a coming-of-age for one man, a midlife odyssey for the other, and an illustration of the violence and corruption prevalent in our fast-expanding country. It artfully sketches the magnificence of the American West as mirrored in the human soul.
Genre: Western
Winner of the 2021 Reading the West Award for Best Debut Novel
A powerful and lyrical debut: a botched robbery sets two men on conflicting journeys across the untamed landscape of the American West.
After an attempted horse theft goes tragically wrong, sixteen-year-old Caleb Bentley is on the run with his mean-spirited older brother across the American Southwest at the turn of the twentieth century. Caleb's moral compass and inner courage will be tested as they travel the harsh terrain and encounter those who have carved out a life there, for good or ill.
Wealthy and bookish Randall Dawson, out of place in this rugged and violent country, is begrudgingly chasing after the Bentley brothers. With little sense of how to survive, much less how to take his revenge, Randall meets Charlotte, a woman experienced in the deadly ways of life in the West. Together they navigate the murky values of vigilante justice.
Powerful and atmospheric, lyrical and fast-paced, All Things Left Wild is a coming-of-age for one man, a midlife odyssey for the other, and an illustration of the violence and corruption prevalent in our fast-expanding country. It artfully sketches the magnificence of the American West as mirrored in the human soul.
Genre: Western
Praise for this book
"A debut full of atmosphere and awe. Wade gives emotional depth to his dust-covered characters, and creates an image of the American West that is harsh and unforgiving, but--like All Things Left Wild--not without hope." - Sarah Bird
"An intense and lyrical journey through the borderzone of the American Southwest in a time before walls, infused with the real feeling of the land, and of the violence its conquest engenders." - Christopher Brown
"A breathtaking debut! In All Things Left Wild, James Wade paints an exquisite portrait of the American West in all its splendor, violence, and mythic power. Messianic outlaws, deadly orphans, and soul-broken poets ride across a landscape both treacherous and beautiful, finding unthinkable viciousness and unfiltered compassion. With a voice reminiscent of Larry McMurtry and Cormac McCarthy, Wade has managed to craft a novel that is both a lyrical pilgrimage and a thrilling, page-turning adventure." - Owen Egerton
"James Wade has delivered a McCarthy-esque odyssey with an Elmore Leonard ear for dialogue. All Things Left Wild moves like a coyote across this cracked-earth landscape--relentlessly paced and ambitiously hungry." - David Joy
"An intense and lyrical journey through the borderzone of the American Southwest in a time before walls, infused with the real feeling of the land, and of the violence its conquest engenders." - Christopher Brown
"A breathtaking debut! In All Things Left Wild, James Wade paints an exquisite portrait of the American West in all its splendor, violence, and mythic power. Messianic outlaws, deadly orphans, and soul-broken poets ride across a landscape both treacherous and beautiful, finding unthinkable viciousness and unfiltered compassion. With a voice reminiscent of Larry McMurtry and Cormac McCarthy, Wade has managed to craft a novel that is both a lyrical pilgrimage and a thrilling, page-turning adventure." - Owen Egerton
"James Wade has delivered a McCarthy-esque odyssey with an Elmore Leonard ear for dialogue. All Things Left Wild moves like a coyote across this cracked-earth landscape--relentlessly paced and ambitiously hungry." - David Joy
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