‘An unflinching, soul-searching story about the dangers of the American West... Ireland’s voice stands apart and he will surely be marked as a courageous and essential writer.’
Beyond the Horizon
Ryan IrelandTHE DEVIL IS ALWAYS IN DISGUISE
A stranger appears at an isolated cabin in frontier America. He has no friends, and no apparent purpose. But as the sun disappears and the desert darkens, a series of strange and savage events start to unfold.
Turning the western genre on its head, Ryan Ireland’s deeply affecting tale transports readers into a visceral and terrifying world of shape-shifters, shadows and the darkest parts of Western American lore.
Reviews
Ann Weisgarber, author of the award-winning The Personal History of Rachel DuPree
‘Expertly plotted, artfully executed, compulsively readable… a writer who has something to say.’
Los Angeles Review of Books
‘Ireland blends fanciful history with magic realism to create a critical allegory of the American expansionist experience ... Intellectual in theme, literary in execution: think Gabriel García Márquez reimagining Little Big Man.’
Kirkus Reviews
'Mythical, dangerous and deeply unsettling.'
Shortlist
'Ireland’s intensely and brutally violent debut novel sweeps through period and place while exploring the role memory plays in the establishment of creation myths ... a barbaric vision of the West.’
Library Journal
‘With trenchant dialogue, affecting characters, and a page-turner of a story, Ryan Ireland has given readers a mysterious and exciting Western that may become a classic.’
Ron Hansen, author of The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford
