{"product_id":"what-came-west-9780385550994","title":"What Came West","description":"\u003cb\u003eA gripping tale of murder and pursuit set against the shifting Sierra Nevada during the Gold Rush, where ambition, violence, and destiny collide. \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\"\u003ci\u003eWhat Came West\u003c\/i\u003e is astonishing. Unraveling the mythology of the Western with a genius for insight and description, Weil tells the story anew: a beautiful, ruminative, bloody, terrifying and brilliant book about a chapter in the life of one man and in the life of our country. Unmissable.\" --Andrew Sean Greer, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of \u003ci\u003eLess\u003c\/i\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eSierra Nevada, 1840s, just before the Gold Rush ignites. Silas Hall has never belonged anywhere except the wild. Bullied as a child and uneasy even within his own family, he finds brief solace in love and fatherhood before the pull of the frontier overwhelms him. One day he heads west, chasing a life that might finally make sense. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eWhat follows is a swift, pulse-pounding journey into the mountains, where Silas becomes one of the first white settlers to cross into the Sierra Nevada. He forges a precarious peace with the Indigenous people who live there--until the Gold Rush crashes in with violent force. As thousands flood the region, the balance shatters, and Silas commits murder, a desperate act that alters the course of every life around him, including his own. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eTaut and propulsive, \u003ci\u003eWhat Came West\u003c\/i\u003e is told in two parallel voices--one a tense, third-person account of Silas on the run, and the other a confessional letter from Silas to the son he left behind--and confronts many different forms of American inheritance, in all its danger, emotional voltage, and mythic momentum. Weil's masterpiece is a fierce, heart-driven portrait of an outsider racing toward belonging and barreling headlong into consequence.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/b\u003e Josh Weil\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e Doubleday Books\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 06\/02\/2026\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 512\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eBinding Type:\u003c\/b\u003e Hardcover\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 1.63lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 9.38h x 6.34w x 1.12d\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN:\u003c\/b\u003e 9780385550994\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eReview Citation(s): \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eKirkus Reviews\u003c\/i\u003e 04\/15\/2026\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eBooklist\u003c\/i\u003e 05\/01\/2026\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eLibrary Journal\u003c\/i\u003e 05\/08\/2026 pg. 1\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003ePublishers Weekly\u003c\/i\u003e 06\/01\/2026\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eJOSH WEIL is the author of the novel \u003ci\u003eThe Great Glass Sea, \u003c\/i\u003ethe novella collection \u003ci\u003eThe New Valley, \u003c\/i\u003eand the story collection \u003ci\u003eThe Age of Perpetual Light\u003c\/i\u003e. He is a Fulbright fellow and has been awarded the Dayton Literary Peace Prize, the Sue Kaufman Prize for First Fiction from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, a \"5 Under 35\" award from the National Book Foundation, the California Book Award, and a Pushcart Prize. For the past dozen years, he has called the Sierra Nevada of Northern California home.\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"booksdeli.com","offers":[{"title":"Josh Weil \/ Hardcover \/ English","offer_id":48397210812573,"sku":"9780385550994","price":38.4,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0619\/5648\/9373\/files\/img_05645279-f40d-4154-952a-c78eb0413493.jpg?v=1781076173","url":"https:\/\/booksdeli.com\/products\/what-came-west-9780385550994","provider":"booksdeli.com","version":"1.0","type":"link"}