Wolves of Eden by Kevin McCarthy

This western is told in two ways. One is the very authentic voice of a prisoner retelling events and his confession to his army jailer and the other is the account of the events that led up to the arrest and shortly after. The setting is the Dakota Territories after the Civil War and what is left of the U.S. Cavalry establishing forts in the West is not the cream of the military crop. Once again we are reminded that America was and still is, a melting pot and this is the American West from an Irish immigrant's perspective. The viewpoint of the army with its cultural mix, the racial hatred and bitterness that was still present after the Civil War, the religious intolerance, and the degradation of the Native Americans all factor into this brutal and honest tale. The author, who is Irish, has captured a slice of life of the lost people of the American West trying to start over, still searching for the streets of gold and good fortune and still finding the same brutality and injustice they faced in the old country. It is a gut-wrenching and heartbreaking tale mixed with moments of tenderness.