Book Jacket
Set in the border states of Kansas and Missouri during the American Civil War, Daniel Woodrell's magnificent novel
Woe To Live On, now filmed by Ang lee as
Ride with the Devil, explores the nature of lawlessness and violence, friendship and loyalty, through the eyes and thoughts of Jake Roedel. During the winter of 1861 Roedel grows up fast, experiencing a brutal parody of war without standards or mercy.
Woe To Live On is a renegade western in the style of Thomas Berger's Little Big Man that celebrates the genre while at the same time bushwhacking some of its most celebrated traditions.