Russell Rowland is the highly-applauded author of three novels set in Montana, including High and Inside, as well as co-editor of an anthology, West of 98: Living and Writing the New American West. He lives in Billings, Montana.
"Fifty-Six Counties, a book I read with pleasure and admiration, is
a great companion for those who already love Montana and for those
anxious to get a real sense of the place without the salesmanship."
-- Tom McGuane "author of The Cadence of Grass and Gallatin
Canyon"
"Everything about Montana is big: its proverbial sky, its
mountains, its wide open spaces. And yet, Russell Rowland has
managed to capture all that grand landscape - and the people who
inhabit it - into the intimacy of a single book. Fifty-Six Counties
is a remarkable book: a macro-focused narrative using a wide-angle
lens. If you have room for only one book about Montana on your
shelf, make it this one." -- David Abrams "author of Fobbit"
"I can't wait for others to discover this book. Thoughtful, wise,
funny, sincere, and deep: those are the words that come to mind
when reading this treasure. Rowland is a humble observer, but he's
also willing to dig deep and bravely, offering astute reflections
on the state, its resources, its peoples, its history, and its
charm and its dangers. This book does not blink or turn away from
the harder issues, nor does it refrain from celebrating all that
deserves adoration. In a voice all his own, Rowland proves to be
warm and personable, and yet cutting and real - basically, one
couldn't wish for a better guide to the state of Montana. This book
is utterly unique. A gorgeous accomplishment." -- Laura Pritchett
"author of Stars Go Blue, winner of the High Plains Book Award and
PEN USA Award"
"Russell Rowland is a whirlwind of a writer, clothed in the stark
colors of Montana's mountains and sky, her high plains and her deep
true rivers. His book Fifty-Six Counties: A Montana Journey is
astounding in beauty and vitality, interwoven with great wisdoms
about human shadow and human light, touched by divine notions of
the sacredness that binds all people, and graced with a hard won
and ultimately natural sense of illumination. In writing the book,
Rowland says he wanted to tap 'into the spirit of Montana... to
explore its heart.' The result of Rowland's exploration is
something soulful, defiant, and revolutionary. He is fiercely
devoted to the atonement and beauty that are the hallmarks of all
great works of art. Rowland names our collective loneliness, but
does so with a fierce and tender devotion to the mothers and
fathers of all races, all cultures. In so doing he restores us not
only to each other but to Mother Earth. His unique, person to
person path through the history, present, and future of Montana is
a vision both elegant and muscular, rich with the scents of forest
and arid lands, violence and community, ranch life and city life,
conservation and industry and ore. Fifty-Six Counties is animated
by the numinous even as it humbles us, makes us more sane, and
draws us into a new and invigorating experience of the essence of
life. This is a book for Montana, for the nation, and for the
world." -- Shann Ray "winner of the American Book Award, the High
Plains Book Award, and the Spur Award, author of American
Masculine, Balefire, and American Copper"
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