The Smiling Country

The Spur Award-winning author revisits one of the most memorable characters in Western fiction in this "exceptional sequel" to The Good Old Boys (Booklist).

Elmer Kelton introduced Texas cowboy Hewey Calloway, one of the most beloved characters in Western fiction, almost thirty years ago in The Good Old Boys. The novel was transformed into a memorable 1995 TV film starring Tommy Lee Jones and Sissy Spacek. Now Hewey returns, older if not necessarily wiser, in The Smiling Country. 

It is 1910 and Hewey Calloway's freewheeling life is coming to an end. The fences, trucks, and automobiles he hates are creeping into the remote "smiling country" of West Texas. When he is badly injured trying to break a renegade horse, Hewey sees the loneliness that awaits him, and regrets his decision to run away from the only woman he has ever loved, the schoolteacher Spring Renfro.