Audiobooks by Glendon Swarthout

The Homesman

The Homesman is a devastating, humane story of early pioneers to America's West in the 1850's. It celebrates the ones we hear nothing of the brave women whose hearts and minds were broken by that life of bitter hardship. When a nineteen-year-old mother loses her three children to diphtheria in three days, or a woman left alone for two nights has to shoot wolves as they crash through the window, it is no wonder they should lose their minds. After a dreadful winter, the Rev. Dowd finds there are four such cases in his parish and, as yet, no asylum in this frontier town. A "homesman" must be found to escort the women East to civilization. Not a job anyone would volunteer for, it falls to Mary Bee Cuddy, ex-teacher, spinster indomitable, resourceful, "plain as an old tin pail." Brave as she is, Mary Bee knows she cannot succeed alone, and the only companion available is the low-life and untrustworthy "George Briggs," a claim-jumper. Thus begins a trek East, against the tide of colonization, against hardship, Indian attacks, ice storms, loneliness, and the unceasing aggravation of a disparate group of mad women, which provides a series of tough, fast-paced adventures and introduces two wonderful, idiosyncratic characters. This is the tale of their journey, and a tribute to the valor of the men and women who homesteaded the frontier, whether they survived or not. The Homesman is narrative fiction of the first rank. And in Mary Bee Cuddy, Glendon Swarthout has created a portrait of a frontier woman who is as moving and believable as it is unforgettable.

Glendon Swarthout (Author), Candace Thaxton (Narrator)

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The Shootist

The Shootist is John Bernard Books, a man of principle and the only surviving gunfighter in a vanishing American West. He rides into El Paso in the year 1901, on the day of Queen Victoria's demise, there to be told by a doctor that he must soon confront the greatest Shootist of all: Death himself. In such a showdown against such an antagonist, J. B. Books cannot win. Most men may end their days in bed or take their own lives, but a mankiller has a third option, one which Books decides to exercise. He may choose his own executioner. As the word spreads that the famous assassin has reached the end of his rope, an assortment of vultures gathers to feast upon the corpse -- among them a gambler, a rustler, a clergyman, an undertaker, an old love, a reporter, even a teenager. Books outwits them, however, by selecting the where, when, who and why of his death and writing in fire from a pair of matched Remingtons the last courageous act of his own legend. The climatic gunfight itself is an incredible performance by an incredible man, and by his creator, Glendon Swarthout.

Glendon Swarthout (Author), J.P. O'Shaughnessy (Narrator)

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Bless the Beasts & Children

"Send Us a Boy, We'll Send You a Cowboy!" is the slogan of the Box Canyon Boys Camp. But for the nail biters, thumb suckers, and teeth grinders, the cast-away offspring of parents who are busy traveling, being divorced, remarrying, and garnering fortunes, it's just another place to face rejection. Until Cotton. Cotton pulls them together. In a hot-wired pickup, he leads "the Bedwetters" on a fantastic mission to save a heard of buffalo, and in the process, to save themselves. But as the raw red Arizona sun rises, they will discover the cost of their one grand moment of glory.

Glendon Swarthout (Author), Scott Brick (Narrator)

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