'L'accompagnatore' è ambientato nelle terre di frontiera del West americano del 1850. Celebra figure di cui non si sente parlare molto: donne e mogli la cui mente è stata lacerata da una vita di asprezze e stenti. È necessario trovare un 'accompagnatore' per scortare quattro di loro a Hebron, nell'Iowa, dove sono attese da un comitato di aiuto alle donne guidato da Altha Carter. Quando nessuno dei loro mariti si fa avanti, l'incarico viene affidato a Mary Bee Cuddy, ex insegnante, zitella, indomita e piena di risorse. Per quanto forte e risoluta, Mary Bee sa che non può farcela da sola. L'unico assistente che riesce a trovare, salvandolo da morte certa, è l'imbroglione George Briggs. Inizia così un viaggio dal Nebraska verso est a bordo di uno strano carro trainato da due muli, in cui cinque donne e un uomo risalgono controcorrente la marea della colonizzazione, tra la minaccia degli indiani, le tempeste di neve e la desolazione di una terra piatta e in larga parte vergine. Romanzo western allo stesso tempo classico e atipico, 'L'accompagnatore' cattura la devastante realtà della vita di frontiera attraverso gli occhi di una donna straordinaria e del suo stravagante compagno di viaggio. Da questo romanzo è tratto il film 'The Homesman' (2014) diretto da Tommy Lee Jones, nel quale lo stesso regista interpreta George Briggs; Hilary Swank è Mary Bee Cuddy; Meryl Streep è Altha Carter.

IN PIONEER NEBRASKA, A WOMAN LEADS WHERE NO MAN WILL GO

Soon to be a major motion picture directed by Tommy Lee Jones, The Homesman is a devastating story of early pioneers in 1850s American West. It celebrates the ones we hear nothing of: the brave women whose hearts and minds were broken by a life of bitter hardship. A “homesman” must be found to escort a handful of them back East to a sanitarium. When none of the county’s men steps up, the job falls to Mary Bee Cuddy—ex-teacher, spinster, indomitable and resourceful. Brave as she is, Mary Bee knows she cannot succeed alone. The only companion she can find is the low-life claim jumper George Briggs. Thus begins a trek east, against the tide of colonization, against hardship, Indian attacks, ice storms, and loneliness—a timeless classic told in a series of tough, fast-paced adventures.

In an unprecedented sweep, Glendon Swarthout’s novel won both the Western Writers of America’s Spur Award and the Western Heritage Wrangler Award. A new afterword by the author’s son Miles Swarthout tells of his parents Glendon and Kathryn’s discovery of and research into the lives of the oft-forgotten frontier women who make The Homesman as moving and believable as it is unforgettable.

From the author of The Homesman, Glendon Swarthout’s Bless the Beasts & Children is the classic coming-of-age novel that explores the fabric of the American ideal—as seen through the eyes of rebellious youth.

“Send us a boy—we’ll send you a cowboy”: It doesn’t matter if the kid hates the sight of horses. Or if he still sucks his thumb and wets the bed. He’s got to be taught to toe the line. To measure up. To dig in his spurs—because that’s the way things are at the Box Canyon Boys Camp in Arizona.

Based on the adventures of the author’s own son, Bless the Beasts & Children tells a tragicomic tale of a group of disturbed teenaged boys from over-privileged families who are sent by their inattentive parents to camp in hopes that their lazy, urban kids will be toughened up in the cowboy program. Complications arise, but these problem boys band together to take up an important cause.

In this remarkable novel, Glendon Swarthout presents an electrifying portrait of six adolescent “misfits” on a desperate mission to save themselves. And, in a society dedicated to one narrow view of success, they learn something important about what it means to be a man. This is “an exciting mission-pursuit story with an engrossing cast of characters” (Publishers Weekly).

Soon to be a major film directed by and starring Tommy Lee Jones and co-starring Meryl Streep, Hilary Swank, and John Lithgow, this classic Western novel captures the devastating realities of early frontier life through the eyes of one extraordinary woman.

The Homesman opens in the 1850s, when early pioneers are doing anything they can to survive dreadful conditions. Women especially struggle with broken hearts and minds as they face bitter hardships: One nineteen-year-old mother loses her three children to diphtheria in three days; another woman left alone for two nights is forced to shoot wolves to protect herself.

The situation calls for a “homesman”—a person charged with taking these women, driven mad by the conditions of rural life, to asylums in the East. Not exactly a job people are lining up for, it falls to Mary Bee Cuddy, an ex-teacher and spinster, who is indomitable, resourceful, and “plain as an old tin pail.” Brave as she is, Mary Bee knows she can’t make it alone, so she takes along her only available companion: the lowlife and untrustworthy George Briggs.

Mary Bee and George know it won’t be easy, but their endurance is truly tested as they fight the tide of colonization, Indian attacks, ice storms, loneliness, and the unceasing aggravation of a disparate group of mad women. This is the tale of their journey and a tribute to the men and women who homesteaded the frontier, whether they survived or not.

Winner of both the Spur Award and the Wrangler (Best Western Novel) Award in 1988, The Homesman is fiction of the highest rank. Glendon Swarthout has created a magnificent tale and a portrait of a frontier woman who is as moving and believable as she is unforgettable.

Quanti scheletri possono entrare negli armadi di una famiglia della borghesia americana? Il candido scrittore per ragazzi B. James Butters smetterà addirittura di contarli, ossessionato dalla paura di accrescere il numero delle vittime illustri e oscure. Butters ha cercato di dimenticare la bella Tyler, la moglie che lo ha abbandonato per andare a vivere con Sansom, mediocre scribacchino di successo. Le giornate scorrono monotone fino al giorno in cui Butters riceve una telefonata proprio da Tyler, che gli chiede di partire alla volta di Harding, New Mexico, per scoprire come il suo eterno rivale sia stato brutalmente ucciso. Inizia per Butters un delirante viaggio sprofondato in un passato così misterioso da diventare troppo fosco per non rivelarsi allarmante.

The neglected attendees of the Box Canyon Boys Camp find their lives turned around by Cotton, who, in a hot-wired pickup, challenges them to join efforts to save a herd of buffalo and rediscover themselves in the process. Reissue.