American Boy
“There are a handful of writers I push on everyone I meet, and Larry Watson is one of them. For the past twenty years he has quietly penned some of the wisest, most powerful novels in my library, and I am thrilled to make room on the shelf for his latest, a gripping, poignant coming-of-age story that opens with a gunshot that will ultimately bury its bullet in your heart. AMERICAN BOY is an American classic.”
—Benjamin Percy, author of THE WILDING and REFRESH, REFRESH

“Watson has penned some of the best contemporary fiction about small-town America, and his new novel does not disappoint. . . . With his graceful writing style, well-drawn characters, and subtly moving plot, Watson masterfully portrays the dark side of small-town America. Highly readable and enthusiastically recommended.”
—Library Journal (starred review)

“Eighteen years ago, Milkweed published Watson’s breakthrough novel, Montana 1948; now the author returns to Milkweed with another powerful coming-of-age story about a teenage boy [Matthew Garth] being shocked into maturity by a moment of sudden and unexpected violence. . . . Like Holden Caulfield trying to catch innocent children before they fall off the cliff adjoining that field of rye, Matthew struggles to save the Dunbars and, in so doing, save himself. He fails, of course, but that’s the point of much of Watson’s always melancholic, always morally ambiguous fiction: coming-of-age is about failure as much as it is about growth.”
—Booklist (starred review)

"Larry Watson’s latest book, AMERICAN BOY, may be his best yet. With the patient skill of a seasoned writer, Watson tells an engaging coming-of-age story of a young man in Willow Falls, Minnesota during the 1960s. Youthful passions, heartbreaks, loyalties and moral uncertainties are all rendered in vivid color.”
—David Rhodes, author of DRIFTLESS

“A true, realistic, and intelligent novel of a teen-aged Minnesota boy in the early 1960s, in which a woman with a gunshot wound captures young Matthew Garth's imagination and continues to hold it in a fierce grip. Young Matthew first encounters Louisa Lindahl in the office of the town doctor, at whose home he spends much of his time. Along the way, Matthew endeavors to work his way into Louisa's affections, while pursuing typical teenage pursuits with Johnny Dunbar, the doctor's son. While Matthew ultimately finds out the answers to most of the questions he has about this mysterious young woman, many of these answers aren't the ones he wants. Watson does a wonderful job of peering under the masks of these small town folks and helping us see what their real selves are.”
—Carl Hoffman, Boswell Book Company

“Pure. Simple. Classic. Little more needs to be said about Larry Watson’s utterly breath-taking coming-of-age novel featuring two high school chums, Johnny Dunbar and Matthew Garth. This novel takes a fresh look at that time of life, the teen years, when everything happens so suddenly and with such ferociousness: the fist crashing out of nowhere into your unsuspecting chin; the physical sick feeling as your heart breaks upon learning that ‘your’ girl isn’t; that head-to-toe rush of hot blood as you gaze knowingly at your first love; the utterly helpless feeling as your vehicle spins round and round over the black ice. Yes, youth, a time of intensity, immediacy, raw emotions, and suddenness. We remember it well. Now Larry Watson captures it all in this wonderful novel, American Boy. This book will become—is—a classic. I recommend it without reserve to every reader who appreciates life and fine literature.”
—Nancy Simpson, Book Vault

Sundown, Yellow Moon
"Larry Watson's new novel, SUNDOWN, YELLOW MOON, is a dark mystery, a worthy heir to Dostoevsky's CRIME AND PUNISHMENT."
--Esquire

"The possibilities for a novel about violence and its origins, about love and its wavering effects, and about the growth of character over time are enormous, as is the chance to illuminate life in one of the lesser-known quarters of the heartland. Declaring his allegiance to such predecessors as William Maxwell (most strikingly in the brilliant short novel "So Long, See You Tomorrow"), and with echoes of Richard Ford's Montana stories and an affinity with the plot of Deirdre McNamer's recent Montana novel, "Red Rover," Larry Watson succeeds impressively, especially in deepening our understanding of first love, something most of us long ago dropped from our grasp."
--Chicago Tribune

Orchard
“Marvelous...Showing a deep maturity and craft, Watson surpasses himself in [Orchard].”
—Publishers Weekly (starred review)

"If there exists a literary equivalent to the artist's play of light on canvas, then Larry Watson has mastered it . . . The ingenuity of the book lies in Watson's ability to render the complexities of his characters without loading his sentences with too much sentiment. Like Ned Weaver, whose paintings "make marvelous . . . the ordinariness of life," Watson's sparse words and controlled prose turn a remote town and four lonely characters into a remarkable tale."
--The Baltimore Sun

"ORCHARD is a small masterpiece. And, as wondrous works of art can do, it allures, it pulls you immediately into its depths and settles inside your bones for a long and haunting stay."
--San Francisco Chronicle

"Watson's sinewy third-person narrative dips into each character's perspetive. In scene after scene, he builds a powerful atmosphere of subdued, yet highly charged eroticism. He also makes superb use of dialogue, both to illuminate his characters and to dramatize the intensity of their conflicts."
--Los Angeles Times

"Technically flawness and quietly unnerving"
--Entertainment Weekly (A-)

"ORCHARD blossoms with loss, grief--and haunting beauty"
--USA Today

Laura
"In its hard-won affirmation of the resilience of family love in the face of the darker forces of human nature, LAURA is a beautifully realized work of fiction by a courageous and clear-eyed writer."
--The Washington Post

"The characters' dialogue is so natural and Watson's attention to detail is so acute that it's easy to forget that it is fiction....LAURA is the kind of novel that, once started, is hard to put down."
--The Denver Post

White Crosses
"Larry Watson is convincing not only in his evocation of this rural society but in his multilayered portrait of Jack Nevelsen, a man trapped by circumstance."
--The New York Times Book Review

"This is a haunting novel, full of wonderful writing, and laced with the kinds of subtle insights into small-town life that make it a joy to read and reread."
--The Globe and Mail

Justice
"Beautifully written....Some of the stories about men in JUSTICE evoke the feeling of A RIVER RUNS THROUGH IT, but it's Watson's description of the Hayden women that gives the reader the sweetest gift."
--USA Today

"Throughout, Watson writes with ruthless honesty about his characters' stunted dreams, unpredictable emotions and outbursts of senseless violence, showing once again that he understands not only the West but the untamed hearts that have roamed it."
--Publishers Weekly (starred review)

Montana 1948
"Meditative, rich, and written close to the bone, MONTANA 1948 is a beautiful novel about the meaning of place and evolution of courage. It is a wonderful book."
--Louise Erdrich

"This story is as fresh and clear as the trout streams fished by its narrator....As universal in its themes as it is original in its peculiarities, MONTANA 1948 is a significant and elegant addition to the fiction of the American West, and to contempory American fiction in general."
--The Washington Post Book World

"In crisp, restrained prose, Watson indelibly portrays the moral dilemma of a family torn between justice and loyalty; by implication, he also illuminates some dark corners of our national history.
--Publishers Weekly (starred review)

In a Dark Time
"Watson's first mystery shows he's a writer of uncommon imagination and insight....What the ambitious author succeeds in etching is the dark side of human nature 'in a dark time.'"
--Publishers Weekly

"IN A DARK TIME is an auspicious debut for a novelist....I think you'll enjoy the book."
--The Milwaukee Journal