The Swansong of Wilbur McCrum
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- $7.99
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- $7.99
Publisher Description
Wilbur McCrum has always been a drifter. Abandoned by his parents, one after the other, and subsequently passed from pillar to post, he was still a young lad when he first took to the road, and somehow he's never settled anywhere since. When he meets Ida May, however, that looks set to change: finally, Wilbur's dream of making a home, a family, and a future for himself, looks set to become reality. But fate's a funny old thing, and Wilbur never has had much luck . . .
'With a hugely likeable narrator, and a narrative that gallops along at the breakneck pace of a runaway steer, I loved the energy of the writing, and the way the world of the Wild West is painted so clearly in swift, deft strokes. A terrific and unusual voice' Kate Long
'Kita's gold-rush setting incorporates all the dusty heroism of the Wild West. But Wilbur McCrum is the book's truly unforgettable element. His folksy speech and wry humour are engaging and unrelenting, taking the reader from a troubled childhood to an old age of reminiscence. Few first novels have employed imaginative freedom and picaresque invention with such aplomb' Waterstone’s Books Quarterly
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In her debut novel, English author Kita effortlessly captures the spirit of the Wild West. Protagonist Wilbur McCrum can't help but concede his life has been one unlucky turn after another. Plagued by "fits" that suggest epilepsy, Wilbur is abandoned by one person after the next during his brief and tragic childhood. Soon, he's making his way in the world the best way he knows how not entirely above-board, as it turns out. Wilbur's humorous life as a ne'er-do-well reads like Moll Flanders meets Zane Grey. Best of all, Kita nails the vernacular of the times with great humor. Here, Wilbur sizes up a prostitute he's fallen in love with: "To me she'd have been well nigh perfect, iffen only she'd had a full set of teeth." Readers are assured a rollicking ride to the novel's emotional finish.