Anything for Billy: A Novel

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Simon and Schuster, May 24, 2010 - Fiction - 418 pages
A Pulitzer Prize winner’s western “does for the gunfighter what Lonesome Dove did for the trail riding cowboy . . . wistful appeal, larger-than-life characters” (Time).

An electrifying take on the classic tale of Billy the Kid, the teenage outlaw of the American Old West, from award-winning, bestselling author Larry McMurtry.

The first time I saw Billy, he came walking out of a cloud . . .

Welcome to the wild, hot-blooded adventures of Billy the Kid, the American West’s most legendary gunslinger. Larry McMurtry takes us on a hell-for-leather journey with Billy and his friends as they ride, drink, love, fight, shoot, and escape their way into the shining memories of Western myth. Surrounded by a splendid cast of characters that only Larry McMurtry could create, Billy charges headlong toward his fate, to become in death the unforgettable desperado he aspires to be in life. Not since Lonesome Dove has there been such a rich, exciting novel about the cowboys, Indians, and gunmen who live at the blazing heart of the American dream.

“This tale of random violence, unlikely romance and quicksilver friendships in the old West is a rip-roaring gamble with a tear in its eye, and it pays off in spades.” —Publishers Weekly

“Entertaining and peopled with . . . beguiling characters. McMurtry drills a bull’s eye, proving that he is among the most versatile of our writers.” —Library Journal

“Storytelling at its best, the West at its fiercest, and McMurtry in his prime.” —The Seattle Times
 

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About the author (2010)

Larry McMurtry (1936–2021) was the author of twenty-nine novels, including the Pulitzer Prize–winning Lonesome Dove, three memoirs, two collections of essays, and more than thirty screenplays. He lived in Archer City, Texas.

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