Puneet Varma (Editor)

The Sisters Brothers

Updated on
Edit
Like
Comment
Share on FacebookTweet on TwitterShare on LinkedInShare on Reddit
7.6
/
10
1
Votes
Alchetron
7.6
1 Ratings
100
90
80
71
60
50
40
30
20
10
Rate This

Rate This

Cover artist
  
Dan Stiles

Series
  
none

Pages
  
325 pg (hardback)

Author
  
Patrick deWitt

Publisher
  
Ecco Press

3.8/5
Goodreads

Language
  
English

Publication date
  
2011

Originally published
  
26 April 2011

Genre
  
Western fiction

The Sisters Brothers t3gstaticcomimagesqtbnANd9GcQU18ZG6ztCuRezRn

Media type
  
Print (Hardback, and Paperback)

Nominations
  
Booker Prize, Scotiabank Giller Prize, Goodreads Choice Awards Best Historical Fiction

Similar
  
Patrick deWitt books, Other books

Patrick dewitt the sisters brothers


The Sisters Brothers (2011) is a historical novel by Canadian-born author Patrick deWitt.

Contents

The darkly comic, Western-inspired story takes place in Oregon and California in 1851. The narrator Eli Sisters and his brother Charlie Sisters are assassins sent to kill Hermann Kermit Warm, an ingenious and likable man, who is accused of stealing from the Sisters' fearsome boss, the Commodore. The series of adventures depicted resemble the narrative form of a picaresque novel, and the chapters are, according to one review, "slightly sketched-in, dangerously close to a film treatment."

The film rights for the novel have been sold to actor John C. Reilly's production company.

The sisters brothers by patrick dewitt


Plot summary

The Sisters brothers are hired by the Commodore to travel from Oregon City to San Francisco to murder prospector Hermann Warm, who is described to them as a "thief". However, when they ultimately encounter Warm, who has developed a chemical formula that reveals the location of gold hidden in riverbeds, they decide to join his prospecting operation rather than murder him. Unfortunately, the formula is extremely toxic; Warm and his partner Morris die from exposure, and Charlie Sisters' shooting hand is amputated. The brothers are robbed of all their wealth, give up their life of crime, and move in to their mother's house in Oregon City. Eli murders the Commodore so that they might retire in peace.

Inspiration

The Sisters Brothers was inspired by a Time–Life book on the California Gold Rush, which deWitt found at a yard sale.

Reception

In the year of its release, the book was declared a winner at the 75th Governor General's Literary Awards, held by the Canada Council for the Arts, as well as the winner of the $25,000 Rogers Writers' Trust Fiction Prize awarded by the Writers' Trust of Canada. The book also won the 2012 Stephen Leacock Medal from The Stephen Leacock Memorial Medal for humour writing, and was announced the winner of the award for Best Fiction at the Canadian Booksellers Association Libris Awards. It also won the 2012 Canadian Authors Association Award for Fiction . Additionally, it was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize, the 2011 Scotiabank Giller Prize and the 2012 Walter Scott Prize. The Sisters Brothers was number one on Amazon.ca's Best Books of 2011: Top 100 Editors' Picks list and, according to Amazon.ca, was the top selling fiction book in Canada for the week ending December 11, 2011.

References

The Sisters Brothers Wikipedia