The Dying Grass

About this book

"The reading experience of a lifetime ..."--The Washington Post The National Book Award winner takes readers inside the epic fighting retreat of the Nez Perce Indians In this new installment in his acclaimed series of novels examining the collisions between Native Americans and European colonizers William T. Vollmann tells the story of the Nez Perce War with flashbacks to the Civil War. Defrauded and intimidated at every turn the Nez Perces finally went on the warpath in 1877 subjecting the U.S. Army to its greatest defeat since Little Big Horn as they fled from northeast Oregon across Montana to the Canadian border. Vollmanns main character is not the legendary Chief Joseph but his pursuer General Oliver Otis Howard the brave shy tormented devoutly Christian Civil War veteran. In this novel we see him as commander father son husband friend and killer. Teeming with many vivid characters on both sides of the conflict and written in an original style in which the printed page works as a stage with multiple layers of foreground and background The Dying Grass is another mesmerizing achievement from one of the most ambitious writers of our time.