Orphans: A Tale of Billy the Kid
Jun 2027 · Other Press, LLC
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160
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About this ebook
An intimate history of the famed Old West outlaw that plumbs the origins of power in America and the precariousness of democracy—from the Goncourt Prize–winning author of The Order of the Day.
Henry McCarty, William Bonney, Billy the Kid. Born in 1859, orphaned at 14, he killed his first man at 17 and died at just 21. His story was written by his killer—the New Mexico lawman Pat Garrett, whose Authentic Life of Billy the Kid aimed to counter the growing legend of a folk hero unfairly ambushed in the night.
Deconstructing this larger-than-life figure through a series of poignant vignettes, Éric Vuillard shows the bleak reality behind the American Western. He highlights the poverty and desperation of the desperado, the dark side of the “self-made man,” who played a vital role in the expanding economy. Drawing a line between these orphans of the frontier and present-day vigilantes, Vuillard’s timely account makes a powerful statement about the eruption of violence amid increasing inequality.
Henry McCarty, William Bonney, Billy the Kid. Born in 1859, orphaned at 14, he killed his first man at 17 and died at just 21. His story was written by his killer—the New Mexico lawman Pat Garrett, whose Authentic Life of Billy the Kid aimed to counter the growing legend of a folk hero unfairly ambushed in the night.
Deconstructing this larger-than-life figure through a series of poignant vignettes, Éric Vuillard shows the bleak reality behind the American Western. He highlights the poverty and desperation of the desperado, the dark side of the “self-made man,” who played a vital role in the expanding economy. Drawing a line between these orphans of the frontier and present-day vigilantes, Vuillard’s timely account makes a powerful statement about the eruption of violence amid increasing inequality.
An intimate history of the famed Old West outlaw that plumbs the origins of power in America and the precariousness of democracy—from the Goncourt Prize–winning author of The Order of the Day.
Henry McCarty, William Bonney, Billy the Kid. Born in 1859, orphaned at 14, he killed his first man at ...
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About the author
Éric Vuillard is an award-winning author and filmmaker who has written eleven books, including Conquistadors (winner of the 2010 Prix Ignatius J. Reilly), and La bataille d’Occident and Congo (both of which received the 2012 Prix Franz-Hessel and the 2013 Prix Valery-Larbaud). He won the 2017 Goncourt Prize, France’s most prestigious literary prize, for The Order of the Day (Other Press, 2018) and was a finalist for the International Booker Prize for The War of the Poor (Other Press, 2020). Born in Lyon in 1968, he now lives in Rennes, France.
Mark Polizzotti has translated more than fifty books from the French, including works by Gustave Flaubert, Patrick Modiano, Marguerite Duras, André Breton, and Raymond Roussel. His translation of Kibogo by Scholastique Mukasonga was short-listed for the National Book Award in 2022, and his translation of Éric Vuillard’s The War of the Poor was short-listed for the International Booker Prize in 2021. A Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres and the recipient of a 2016 American Academy of Arts & Letters Award for Literature, Polizzotti is the author of eleven books, including Revolution of the Mind: The Life of André Breton (1995; rev. ed. 2009), which was a finalist for the PEN/Martha Albrand Award for First Nonfiction; Luis Buñuel’s Los Olvidados (2006); Bob Dylan: Highway 61 Revisited (2006); and Sympathy for the Traitor: A Translation Manifesto (2018).
Mark Polizzotti has translated more than fifty books from the French, including works by Gustave Flaubert, Patrick Modiano, Marguerite Duras, André Breton, and Raymond Roussel. His translation of Kibogo by Scholastique Mukasonga was short-listed for the National Book Award in 2022, and his translation of Éric Vuillard’s The War of the Poor was short-listed for the International Booker Prize in 2021. A Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres and the recipient of a 2016 American Academy of Arts & Letters Award for Literature, Polizzotti is the author of eleven books, including Revolution of the Mind: The Life of André Breton (1995; rev. ed. 2009), which was a finalist for the PEN/Martha Albrand Award for First Nonfiction; Luis Buñuel’s Los Olvidados (2006); Bob Dylan: Highway 61 Revisited (2006); and Sympathy for the Traitor: A Translation Manifesto (2018).
Éric Vuillard is an award-winning author and filmmaker who has written eleven books, including Conquistadors (winner of the 2010 Prix Ignatius J. Reilly), and La bataille d’Occident and Congo (both of which received the 2012 Prix Franz-Hessel and the 2013 Prix Valery-Larbaud). He won the 2017 Gon...
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