Close Range: Brokeback Mountain and other stories

Close Range: Brokeback Mountain and other stories
Annie Proulx

From the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of ‘The Shipping News’ comes a collection of short stories inspired by the harsh and unforgiving landscape of Wyoming. Includes the acclaimed stories, Brokeback Mountain (winner of a National Magazine Award) and The Mud Below.Brokeback Mountain is set in the beautiful, wild landscape of Wyoming where cowboys live as they have done for generations. Hard, lonely lives in unforgiving country. Jack Twist and Ennis del Mar are two ranch hands – ‘drop-out country boys with no prospects, brought up to hard work and privation, both rough-mannered, tough spoken’ – glad to have found each other’s company where none had been expected. But companionship becomes something else on Brokeback Mountain, something not looked for, something deadly.

ANNIE PROULX

Close Range:Brokeback Mountain and Other Stories

Copyright (#ulink_108ad83a-36e6-59bd-bb32-da0a6512a44c)

Fourth Estate

An imprint of HarperCollins Publishers 1 London Bridge Street, London SE1 9GF

www.4thestate.co.uk (http://www.4thestate.co.uk)

This edition published 2010

First published in Great Britain as Close Range: Wyoming Stories by Fourth Estate in 1999

Copyright © Dead Line, Ltd. 1999

‘Brokeback Mountain’, ‘The Mud Below’, ‘The Blood Bay’ and ‘The Bunchgrass Edge of the World’ originally appeared in The New Yorker; ‘The Half-Skinned Steer’ appeared in The Atlantic; ‘People in Hell Just Want a Drink of Water’ appeared in GQ.

Annie Proulx asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.

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Ebook Edition © MAY 2012 ISBN 9780007368815

Version 2016-06-13

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Dedication (#ulink_7d5b2331-3ffd-57cd-b0f7-d1db1a9695eb)

These stories are for my children

Muffy

Jon

Gillis

Morgan

Epigraph (#ulink_00eac061-0787-5409-873a-ae1b7937eaa1)

“Reality’s never been of much use out here.”

—Retired Wyoming rancher

Contents

Cover (#uc0547b54-91a2-53a5-b3df-7587269a04e2)

Title Page (#u48d2d992-32dd-5125-8347-9562febf1c45)

Copyright (#u04651a02-b7b1-5799-a406-dae941f11848)

Dedication (#u106c2aa4-7b73-5f53-afe6-d4286e55ca1a)

Epigraph (#u4918cbaa-4ff1-5a9f-b4c6-fcaddca2a770)

The Half-Skinned Steer (#u0d000ab8-04b1-5198-8158-f070a2243f40)

The Mud Below (#u9b0d35a0-3572-58c2-ab81-6ae644f93a51)

Job History (#litres_trial_promo)

The Blood Bay (#litres_trial_promo)

People in Hell Just Want a Drink of Water (#litres_trial_promo)

The Bunchgrass Edge of the World (#litres_trial_promo)

Pair a Spurs (#litres_trial_promo)

A Lonely Coast (#litres_trial_promo)

The Governors of Wyoming (#litres_trial_promo)

55 Miles to the Gas Pump (#litres_trial_promo)

Brokeback Mountain (#litres_trial_promo)

Acknowledgements (#litres_trial_promo)

About the Author (#litres_trial_promo)

Also by Annie Proulx (#litres_trial_promo)

Praise (#litres_trial_promo)

About the Publisher (#litres_trial_promo)