The assassination of Jesse James by the coward Robert Ford

This is now a major Hollywood movie, starring Brad Pitt.

It is one of the greatest westerns ever written, praised by John Irving as: "Wonderful...great storytelling...Ron Hansen has one of the most accomplished prose styles in contemporary fiction, and this narrative is the best blend of fiction and history I've read in a long while." Hansen is one of the most acclaimed contemporary writers, a novel for all fans of Cormac McCarthy and Elmore Leonard.

Hansen re-creates the real West of the most famous outlaw of them all, Jesse James, and of his death at the hands of Robert Ford.

Ford is drawn to Jesse, uncertain if he wants to serve or destroy him, or somehow become him.

James, a charismatic, superstitious, and moody man, controls his ragged gang who fear his temper and quick shooting.

This is the classic story of the American West, and of how Ford would gain immortality as the "dirty little coward who laid poor Jesse in his grave".

Combining history and fiction for a vivid recreation of the old West and the outlaws who dominated it, Ron Hansen masterfully tells their story.