Back to fiction: The Sisters Brothers

In 2012, non-fiction featured quite heavily in my reading list so it’s nice to end the year by going back to fiction. 

It's holiday time and I just wanted a great story to take me away.  Patrick Dewitt’s The Sisters Brothers, certainly did that!

This book is a strange, violent and compelling Western about two brothers who are assassins.

Yes that is right, I read a Western! I must admit the Western is a genre that I’m not too familiar with and don’t have much of an interest in.

Dewitt’s book, described as a ‘revisionist Western’, tracks the relationship and adventures of the much feared and loathed Charlie and Eli Sisters who are on a job to kill a gold prospector Hermit Kermit Warm.

Set in the 'wild West' of the Gold Rush era, the story is told from the perspective of Eli Sisters and it’s really his voice that really makes the novel so interesting, original and at times very poetic.


An overweight, sensitive, romnatic and philosophical assassin is the last thing you expect in a Western genre, but Eli Sisters is exactly that. 

I’m not sure that The Sisters Brothers has ignited my interest in Western, but it is certainly a terrific read.  

It’s hard to describe this strange, funny, violent and compelling story but from the first chapter it had me totally hooked. 

One reviewer described the book as a bit like a Coen brothers movie, which is very apt as you are either a fan of their type of movies or not. There really is no in between. 

I'm a big fan of the Coen brothers, so I really enjoy this type of story telling with quirky characters and situations.  

It’s a sign of a great writer when the story and characters stay inside your head long after you have finished the book.

Charlie and Eli Sisters have certainly stayed with me.