A 'fresh, unpredictable' Western with a strong female lead

Every week, The Thread checks in with booksellers around the country about their favorite books of the moment. This week, we spoke with Aaron Cance from The Printed Garden in Sandy, Utah.

Aaron Cance has been selling books for 22 years. After more than two decades, some books can start to blur together or feel repetitive.

"Sometimes halfway through a book, I think I've read this already — but it had a different title and was written by someone else," Cance joked.

That's why he was so transfixed by John Larison's novel, "Whiskey When We're Dry."

"It's really an unpredictable book. I like to be surprised when I read," he said. "I really wanted to find out what was next, because I didn't feel like I knew what was coming."

The story follows 17-year-old Jessilyn, who lives with her father and brother, Noah, on a homestead in the late 1800s. When her father and Noah get in a vicious fight, Noah runs off and Jessilyn is left behind to care for father.

The next she sees of Noah is his face on "wanted" posters at the local post office. The reward grows, people gossip, and her brother becomes more and more of a notorious outlaw.

Jessilyn is "a very strong female character, which is not common in Western fiction," Cance said.

When her father dies, "she realizes that because of the limitations of the time she's living in, she has no way of maintaining or running her family's homestead — and she had to find her brother. She binds up her breasts, puts on a bunch of his abandoned clothing, cuts her hair ... and she sets off to find him. And that is what I think makes it an extraordinary story."

What's more, it's Larison's debut novel.

"I'm always drawn to a really good debut," Cance said. "I love being able to find a new author."

Whiskey When We're Dry Whiskey When We're Dry

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