The ten best books about Texas

Aaron Gwyn is the author of three novels. His fiction has appeared in his story collection Dog on the Cross, finalist for the New York Public Library’s Young Lions Fiction Award; and numerous magazines and anthologies such as Esquire, McSweeney’s, Best of the West, and Every True Pleasure: LGBTQ Tales of North Carolina. He is associate professor of English at the University of North Carolina-Charlotte, where he teaches fiction writing and American literature.

Gwyn's new novel is All God's Children.

At Publishers Weekly he tagged the ten best books about the Lone Star state, including:

The Son by Philipp Meyer

The best book written about Texas, fact or fiction, is Meyer's epic novel, a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. When 13-year-old Eli McCullough's family is wiped out in 1851 by Comanche raiders, Eli is taken captive and then slowly assimilated into the tribe. He will eventually learn to hunt, fight, and love like the Comanche, but when tragedy destroys this new family and he's forced to return to Anglo civilization, Eli sets out on an 80-year quest to dominate in war, in cattle, and finally in oil, using the ways of the Comanche to conquer his enemies, leaving a trail of sons behind him.

Read about another entry on the list.

The Son is among John Larison's ten top books in the history & future of the Western and Paul Howarth's ten top tales from the frontier.

--Marshal Zeringue