In the spring of 1885, seventeen-year-old Jessilyn Harney finds herself orphaned and alone on her
family’s homestead. Desperate to fend off starvation and predatory neighbours, she cuts her hair, binds
her chest, saddles her beloved mare, and sets off across the mountains to find her gun-slinging fugitive
brother Noah and bring him home.
A talented sharpshooter herself, Jess’s quest lands her in the employ of the territory’s violent, capricious
governor, whose militia is also hunting Noah — dead or alive. Wrestling with her brother’s outlaw identity,
and haunted by questions of her own, Jess must outmanoeuvre those who underestimate her,
ultimately rising to become a hero in her own right.
Told in Jess’s wholly original and unforgettable voice, the story brims with page-turning Western action,
but its approach is modern and nuanced, touching on powerful issues from gender and sexuality to
family and identity.
'Larison has developed a pitch-perfect voice for his intrepid heroine' — Publisher's Weekly
'Whiskey When We're Dry is the story of a surprising heroine...narrated in a voice cobbled out of slang and sagebrush, Larison's novel is a vivid and fast-paced frontier saga' — Kate Manning, author of My Notorious Life
'A thunderclap of originality, here is a fresh voice and fresh take on one of the oldest sotries we tell about ourselves as Americans and Westerners. It's riveting in all the right ways' — Timothy Egan, New York Times bestselling author of The Worst Hard Time
