Shoot! — George Bowering

Fiction. Across Canada's wild west of the 1800s, brothers Allan, Charlie, Archie and sidekick Alex Hare were known as the McLean gang. They were also known as "breeds" -- outcasts caught between the cultures -- Alex Hare, a Metis, and Allan, Charlie and Archie, brothers of mixed Salish and Scottish blood. They roamed the high Chilcotin ranch country of British Columbia in the 1870s, cattle rustling, stealing and creating high-spirited mayhem. Until one frozen, crystalline morning in 1879, when they crossed the line and shot two men in cold blood, one of them, Johnny Ussher, the local sheriff. Tracked down by a posse of over 100 men, the McLean Gang were eventually trapped and besieged.

"With powerful imagery and crisp narration, Bowering delivers a stinging commentary on the desperation of racism in the harsh environment of the Canadian West." -- Publishers Weekly