The Bullet Swallower
In 1895, Antonio Sonoro is the latest in a long line of ruthless Mexican bandits and the closest thing to a patriarch his starving family has left. He crosses the Rio Grande to rob a train, survives a Texas Ranger ambush that takes his jaw and his brother's life, and begins riding north for revenge. In 1964 Mexico City, Antonio's grandson Jaime, a famous Mexican film star, starts uncovering the family history his father refused to discuss. A figure called Remedio walks both timelines, a cosmic debt-collector who has been tracking the Sonoro men for centuries. Gonzalez James writes the prose in a McCarthy-meets-Marquez register the reviews kept comparing to Blood Meridian.
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A 1895 Mexican bandit who survives a Texas Ranger ambush and his 1964 film-star grandson are stalked by a cosmic debt-collector in this 2024 borderland western.
The Bullet Swallower was written by Elizabeth Gonzalez James and published in 2024. It is her second novel, after Mona at Sea.
Partly. The Bullet Swallower draws on Elizabeth Gonzalez James's family history, including a great-great-grandfather who was a real bandit on the U.S.-Mexico border. The novel blends real history with magical realism.
The Bullet Swallower is a standalone novel by Elizabeth Gonzalez James, not part of a series.
The Bullet Swallower is available in hardcover, paperback, ebook, and audiobook formats from Amazon, Bookshop.org, ThriftBooks, and most major bookstores.
