One of Time magazine’s top-five novels of the year and a New York Times best seller, Leif Enger’s first novel, Peace Like a River, captured readers’ hearts around the nation. His new novel is a stunning successor—a touching, nimble, and rugged story of an aging train robber on a quest to reconcile the claims of love and judgment on his life, and the failed writer who goes with him.

In 1915 Minnesota, Monte Becket—“a man fading, a disappointer of persons”—has lost his sense of purpose. His only success long behind him, Monte lives a simple life with his loving wife and whipsmart son. But when he befriends outlaw Glendon Hale, a new world of opportunity and experience presents itself.

Glendon has spent years in obscurity, but the guilt he harbors for abandoning his wife, Blue, over two decades ago, has finally lured him from hiding. As the modern age marches swiftly forward, Glendon aims to travel back into his past—heading to California to seek Blue’s forgiveness. Beguiled and inspired, Monte soon finds himself leaving behind his own family to embark for the unruly West with his fugitive guide—a journey that will test the depth of his loyalties, the inviolability of his morals, and the strength of his resolve. As they flee from the relentless Charles Siringo, an ex-Pinkerton who’s been hunting Glendon for years, Monte falls ever further from his family and the law, to be tempered by a fiery adventure from which he may never get home.

With its smooth mix of romanticism and gritty reality, So Brave, Young, and Handsome often recalls the Old West’s greatest cowboy stories. But it is also about an ordinary man’s determination as he risks everything in order to understand what it’s all worth, and follows an unlikely dream in the hope it will lead him back home.

A Book Sense Selection
A Rocky Mountain News Best Book of the Year 2008
A St. Louis Post-Dispatch Best Book of the Year 2008
Selected as Amazon.com Top 100 Editors’ Picks (No. 8)
2008 Midwest Booksellers’ Choice Award Honor Book for Fiction
Midwest Booksellers Association Heartland Independent Bestseller List (4/27/08)
Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association Bestseller List (4/27/08)
Mountain and Plains Independent Booksellers Association Bestseller List (5/3/08)
Southern Independent Booksellers Association Bestseller List (5/3/08)
Finalist for the Christianity Today Book Award for Fiction

“A superbly written, utterly compelling story of self-discovery and redemption disguised as a cracking good adventure tale . . . Enger has created a work of great humanity and huge heart, a riveting piece of fiction that while highly accessible is never shallow. This story of an ordinary man’s discovery of who he is and his place in the world is exciting, admirable and ultimately very affecting. . ..After reading the final page, don’t be surprised if you find yourself shaking your head and murmuring, ‘Wow. What a good book.’” —Peter Moore, Minneapolis Star Tribune

“So Brave, Young, and Handsome is a sharp and brainy redemption tale, with all the twists and turns and thrills of a dime-store western. . . . [Enger’s] laid claim to a musical, sometimes magical and deeply satisfying kind of storytelling.” —Veronique de Turenne, Los Angeles Times

“With its brisk, short chapters and heady, nostalgic air, Enger’s delightful follow-up to Peace Like a River is a big-hearted western yarn, full of blossoming and reformed outlaws, wide prairies and aromatic orange groves, perilous chases and abductions, trouble and redemption. It’s an old-fashioned road trip you can’t afford to miss. . . . Enger’s tale is lively and generous of spirit, its stately prose steeped in warm, turn-of-the-century charm, and Monte’s discovery of his loyalty and limits is engaging. At a time when good westerns are hard to find, So Brave, Young, and Handsome deserves to become a classic.” —Connie Ogle, Miami Herald

LEIF ENGER grew up in Osakis, Minnesota, and worked as a reporter for Minnesota Public Radio before writing his bestselling debut novel Peace Like a River, which won the Booksense Award for Fiction and was named one of the Year’s Best Books by Time Magazine and the Los Angeles Times. His second novel, So Brave, Young, and Handsome, was also a national bestseller. It was a Midwest Booksellers Honor Book, and won the High Plains Book Award for Fiction. His third novel Virgil Wander was longlisted for the Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction, and was named a best book of the year by Amazon, Library Journal, Bookpage, and Chicago Public Library. He lives with his wife in Duluth, MN.